Academy
Lawrence D.H. Wood, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine (Emeritus)
Section of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine/Department of Medicine
The University of Chicago
Lawrence D.H. Wood, MD, PhD
Born and educated in Canada, Dr. Lawrence D.H. Wood received his MD degree at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and his PhD at McGill University in Montreal. After completing his internal medicine residency and critical care training, Dr. Wood joined the faculty at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1975. Dr. Wood joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1982, where his leadership was instrumental in building a strong program in Critical Care within a new section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In part through his mentorship and example, faculty in that section became increasingly recognized by medical students and house staff as inspired, effective teachers who consistently received more than their share of teaching awards. In 1984, less than two years after joining the University of Chicago, the medical school graduates presented Dr. Wood with J.A McClintock Award as the Outstanding Teacher in the medical school. He was subsequently named one of the Outstanding Teachers for the next 20 consecutive years. During this time, he was selected as Favorite Teacher by the Internal Medicine residents on each of five academic years, and in 2003 he received a National Award, the Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from AOA/AAMC.
Dr. Wood co-authored more than 150 articles linking pathophysiology to clinical medicine, and he co-edited three books on the Principles of Critical Care. When the American Thoracic Society established a section on Critical Care in 1984, Dr. Wood was elected as its first chairperson. With his leadership and example, subsequent annual meetings of the ATS included spirited questioning of the scientific basis of critical care and such superb teaching sessions that this soon became the preferred venue for critical care fellows and faculty to present an discuss their research and to update their education. A teacher acclaimed for encouraging and challenging his students to think critically, he trained over 100 pulmonary and critical care fellows, many of whom now hold leadership positions as investigators and teachers. In providing critical care, his trainees were encouraged to seek excellence and compassion, and Dr. Wood received on several occasions the Humanism in Medicine Award for his modeling and teaching empathic listening and grief counseling. Dr. Wood received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the ATS, and the Gold Key Award from the BSD Alumni Association for outstanding service to the University of Chicago. A consistent contributor to educational reform, Dr. Wood led a task force on Review and Revision of the Medical School Curriculum in 1995 which proposed numerous innovations.
After serving as Dean of Medical Education at Chicago from 1996 through 2003, Dr. Wood retired. Currently, there are two teaching awards at the University of Chicago named in his honor: the Lawrence D.H. Wood Award for “selfless, tireless, and excellent teaching of medical students” in the preclerkship years and the new Lawrence D.H. Wood Teaching Scholar Award, created by the newly formed University of Chicago Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators, to honor a senior faculty member for outstanding contributions to medical education at the Pritzker School of Medicine. In 2006, Dr. Wood was named as one of the six inaugural members to the University of Chicago Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators.
