POSTPONED - Radiation Evangelists

POSTPONED

Tickets are here.

Join us for this year's Sonia Stupniker Isard Lecture: Radiation Evangelists with Jeffrey Womack!
Radiation Evangelists explores X-ray and radium therapy in the United States and Great Britain during a crucial period of its development, from 1896 to 1925. It focuses on the pioneering work of early advocates in the field, the “radiation evangelists” who, motivated by their faith in a new technology, trust in new energy sources, and hope for future breakthroughs, turned a blind eye to the dangers of radiation exposure. Although ionizing radiation effectively treated diseases like skin infections and cancers, radiation therapists—who did not need a medical education to develop or administer procedures or sell tonics containing radium—operated in a space of uncertainty about exactly how radiation worked or would affect human bodies. And yet radium, once a specialized medical treatment, would eventually become a consumer health product associated with the antibacterial properties of sunlight.
 
This book raises important questions about medical experimentation and the so-called Golden Rule of medical ethics, issues of safety and professional identity, and the temptation of a powerful therapeutic tool that also posed significant risks in its formative years. In this cautionary tale of technological medical progress, Jeffrey Womack reveals how practitioners and their patients accepted uncertainty as a condition of their therapy in an attempt to alleviate human suffering
 
Featured Author:
Jeffrey Womack, PhD
Historian
jeffreycwomack.com
 
ABOUT Sonia Stupniker Isard (September 7, 1909 ~ May 18, 2000)
 
The Sonia Stupniker Isard Lecture was established in 1991 by Dr. Harold J. Isard (F’51) in honor of his wife, Dr. Sonia Stupniker (F’73). The inaugural lecture was held in 1993.
 
Sonia Stupniker Isard was born in the Ukraine and immigrated to the United States from Palestine at age 13. She attended Girls High and Gratz College, and in 1934 graduated from Temple University School of Medicine, where she met and married her classmate, Dr. Harold J. Isard, who later became one of Philadelphia's top radiologists. With firmness, humor, and professional excellence, she won a place in a discipline that accepted very few women in her time. Her great academic and professional success is even more impressive in light of the fact that she came to the United States without understanding the English language. Dr. Stupniker became a prominent physician associated with Albert Einstein Medical Center for more than 60 years. She specialized in allergies and pursued further study to become certified in the field, and later served as President of the Philadelphia Allergy Society. She maintained a private practice in allergy and immunology until her retirement in 1991. After retiring from practice, she continued to write for the Einstein staff newsletter, providing literary criticism, social commentary and lessons from her professional experiences.
 
A Fellow and strong supporter of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, she was also a Fellow of the American College of Allergists. Dr. Stupniker was a member of the American Academy of Allergy, the Pennsylvania Allergy Society, the American Medical Association, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society and the Philadelphia Medical Society. She was a charter member and President of the Maimonides Society, for which she also served as editor of its journal. In 1993, she and Dr. Isard received the Physician Leadership Award from the Albert Einstein Society.
 
Program Schedule
6:30 pm - 7:15 pm Presentation
7:15 pm - 7:30 pm Q&A
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm Reception and book signing
*Light reception created by Catering By Design provided during the reception
 
Ticket Prices
Public: $10
Members: $5
Students: $5
Fellows: Free
 
Mütter members receive discounts to our events!
-Student & individual members can purchase one member ticket.
-Dual and family members can purchase two member tickets.
Not a member? Join at https://muttr.org/join!
 
Things to Know:
-Tickets required; limited availability
-Tickets are transferable, but not refundable.
-The main Mütter Museum will not be open during this event.
-American Sign Language interpretation is available for any public program, with advance notice. Please contact Meredith Sellers msellers@collegeofphysicians.org to request sign language interpretation with two weeks notice or for any other accessibility accommodations.
-By entering the event premises, you consent to photography, audio recording, video recording and its release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, promotional purposes, advertising, inclusion on websites, social media, or any other purpose by The College of Physicians/The Mütter Museum and its affiliates and representatives.
 
Questions? Email events@collegeofphysicians.org