F. Curtis Dohan

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Francis Curtis Dohan (March 24, 1907 – November 9, 1991) was an American doctor who studied hormones and the body. He was born in Philadelphia to William Henry Dohan and Elizabeth Rees (Repplier) Dohan. He went to Haverford College and then to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, finishing in 1932. He trained as a doctor at Penn and then learned endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 1935, Dohan returned to the University of Pennsylvania to work at the Cox Medical Research Institute, where he collaborated with Dr. Francis D. W. Lukens. During World War II, he served as a flight surgeon in Africa with the US Army Air Corps. After the war, he went back to Cox and also taught at Penn. He also became Medical Director at RCA, supervising the medical care of RCA workers across the United States. This job gave him a large amount of medical data to study over many years.

Dohan published many scientific papers. He made important contributions to understanding whiplash injuries after car crashes, illnesses from air pollution, and how long patients should stay in the hospital after surgery. He also explored a possible link between schizophrenia and celiac disease, a topic that drew other researchers to study how genetics and metabolism might relate to schizophrenia. Although there were no definite answers, his ideas continued to attract interest in the medical world into the 21st century.