Convocation 2015: Dr. Arnold Aberman receives honorary degree from U of T
Published: June 2, 2015
The University of Toronto is recognizing renowned physician and medical scholar Arnold Aberman with an honorary degree.
A U of T professor emeritus and senior administrator who transformed Toronto’s teaching hospitals, Dr. Aberman received the honour June 2 at the convocation ceremonies for the Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Aberman was born in Montreal, Quebec. He received his B.Sc. (1965) and M.D. (1967) degrees from McGill University where he won many academic awards and prizes. He was a resident in Internal Medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He then completed pulmonary disease subspecialty training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Cardiovascular Research Institute of the University of California, San Francisco. In 1972-73, he was a research fellow in the Shock Research Unit of the University of Southern California.
Dr. Aberman is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and in Pulmonary Disease. He was an intensivist by practice and from 1973 to 1989 was the director of the Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. He was Physician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital from 1977 to 1987.
From October, 1989 - June 1992, he was Physician-in-Chief of The Toronto Hospital. A Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto since 1980, from October 1989 to November 30, 1992, Dr. Aberman was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and the sixth Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor of Medicine. In 1992, he became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. On July 1, 1994, he assumed the position of Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions in addition to his role as Dean. He stepped down from both positions on June 30, 1999. Beginning in January 2002, Dr. Aberman was instrumental in the creation and the early development of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, first as Consulting Dean and then as Consultant to the Dean.
Dr. Aberman has more than 60 publications on the management of shock and other problems of critically ill patients. He has lectured widely throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world, has been a visiting professor in many medical schools and has held leadership positions in many academic organizations. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the American Board of Internal Medicine, a member of the American Board of Medicine's Pulmonary Disease Subspecialty Board and Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine's Pulmonary Disease Subspecialty Board. He was Governor for Ontario for the American College of Physicians and President of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges.
On June 30, 2011, Dr. Aberman was appointed a member of the Order of Canada with the following citation: “Arnold Aberman has contributed to the advancement of medicine for more than 30 years. As co-director of the Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai Hospital, he was instrumental in securing recognition for the field of critical care medicine as an independent discipline in Canada. He contributed to the founding of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and was also dean of medicine at the University of Toronto.”
Convocation ceremonies at U of T will run until June 19 at the downtown campus. More than 13,000 students are expected to graduate and more than 44,000 visitors are expected to join in the celebrations.
