1857-1938
Pharmacologist

Far-Ranging Education.

Descended from German immigrants, John Jacob Abel was born near Cleveland on 19 May 1857, the son of farmer George M. Abel and his wife Mary. At age nineteen he entered the University of Michigan, where he received his Ph.D. in 1883. Abel spent the following year conducting graduate research in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1884, at the age of twenty-seven, Abel embarked on a study trip to Europe that lasted seven years. During his time abroad Abel trained under the biggest names in pharmacology of that era, including the Germans Bernhard Naunyn, Felix Hoppe-Seyler, and Oswald Schmiedeberg. While on the Continent he received an M.D. from the University of Strasbourg in 1888.

Return to the United States.

When he returned to his native country, Abel was offered a faculty position at the University of Michigan. Before Abel could establish...