Charles R. Bardeen

Charles Russell Bardeen (1871-1935) was an American anatomist and the first dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

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Early years

Charles Bardeen was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1871. He completed his B.A. from Harvard University in 1893 and completed his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1897.

Academic career

Charles Bardeen taught at Johns Hopkins University from 1897 to 1904. In 1904, he left Johns Hopkins and accepted the post of professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

University of Wisconsin Medical School

Bardeen came to Wisconsin at a time when the university was expanding under President Charles Van Hise. Van Hise and Bardeen shared the view that the one element the university was missing was a medical school. Bardeen was asked to create a two-year program fully integrated into the university.

In 1907, he became the first dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Bardeen wanted the new medical school to evolve into a four-year program. However, he had to battle local physicians, who believed that such an institution would rob them of their livelihood. Later, the First World War and the 1918 influenza epidemic severely diverted everyone's attention. Finally, in 1924, Wisconsin General Hospital opened its doors, and a year later the Medical School invited students to participate in a four-year curriculum.

However, the medical school had difficulty meeting the clinical needs of the extended curriculum. Bardeen had a solution. He wanted co-optation of state physicians into the medical school's educational activities. Beginning in 1926, fourth-year medical students would spend eight weeks working in one of the many private practices scattered across the state of Wisocnsin. The preceptorship rapidly grew into one of the most popular aspects of medical education at the university. Later, the preceptor concept introduced by Bardeen became an important national innovation.

He contributed articles on embryology, morphology, anatomy, and other subjects to scientific journals.

Personal life

Charles Bardeen was married to Althea Bardeen. Althea had taught at the Dewey Laboratory School and run an interior decorating business before marriying. After the marriage, she was an active figure in the art world. After the death of Althea, he married Kenelm McCauley.

His son, John Bardeen, later became the first and only person to win two Nobel prizes in physics. John Bardeen won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 and 1972.

References

• Charles R. Bardeen
• Charles Russell Bardeen, MD