Athens 157 72, Greece
Georgios Papanikolaou attended the University of Athens, majoring in music and the humanities. However, his physician father influenced his eventual decision to pursue a career in medicine. In 1904, he graduated again from the University of Athens with high honours.
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany
In 1910 Georgios Papanikolaou earned a PhD at the University of Munich.
Athens 157 72, Greece
Georgios Papanikolaou attended the University of Athens, majoring in music and the humanities. However, his physician father influenced his eventual decision to pursue a career in medicine. In 1904, he graduated again from the University of Athens with high honours.
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany
In 1910 Georgios Papanikolaou earned a PhD at the University of Munich.
https://www.amazon.com/DIAGNOSIS-UTERINE-CANCER-VAGINAL-SMEAR/dp/B004VIR9G0/?tag=2022091-20
1943
https://www.amazon.com/Epithelia-Reproductive-Organs-Correlative-Changes/dp/B00CP132UC/?tag=2022091-20
1948
Born on May 13, 1883, in the town of Kimi on the island of Euboea, Greece, Papanicolaou was one of four children of Nicholas and Mary Critsutas Papanicolaou. He had one brother and two sisters. As a boy he loved outdoor life, particularly mountain hiking and boating.
Georgios Papanikolaou attended the University of Athens, majoring not in biology, but in music and the humanities. However, his physician father influenced his eventual decision to pursue a career in medicine. In 1904, he graduated from the University of Athens with high honours. In 1910 he earned a Ph.D. at the University of Munich.
After graduation, Papanicolaou worked in the military as an assistant surgeon for a short time, then returned to his hometown, Kimi. For the next two years, he cared for leprosy patients on the outskirts of his hometown. These outcasts were socially isolated, and Papanicolaou gave them both medical and personal care with compassion and grace. However, his desire to work in science soon took hold and he travelled to the University of Munich in Germany. At this leading research institution, he worked with Professor Ernst Haeckel, one of the first great supporters of Darwinism.
Papanicolaou returned to Greece following the death of his mother. When the First Balkan War broke out in 1912, Papanicolaou returned to military service as a lieutenant in Greece’s medical corps. However, he became interested in career opportunities in the United States (US) and decided to emigrate, arriving in New York on October 19, 1913.
Arriving with little money and no arrangements for employment, both Papanicolaou and his wife were forced to take any job that they could get. Mary worked at a department store as a seamstress and Papanicolaou was a rug salesman at the same store, but he lasted only one day. He subsequently took other jobs: violin player in a restaurant and clerk at a Greek newspaper. In 1914, he finally obtained a position at New York University’s Pathology Department and Cornell University Medical College’s Anatomy Department, where his wife joined him as a technician.
While Papanicolaou’s research would eventually be on human physiology, he began his studies with guinea pigs. In 1916, while studying sex chromosomes, he deduced that reproductive cycles in the experimental animals could be timed by examining smears of their vaginal secretions. From 1920, he began to focus on the cytopathology of the human reproductive system. He was thrilled when he was able to discern differences between the cytology of normal and malignant cervical cells upon a simple viewing of swabs smeared on microscopic slides.
Although his initial publication of the finding in 1928 went largely unnoticed, that year was filled with other happy events for Papanicolaou. He became a US citizen and received a promotion to Assistant Professor at Cornell. As part of his research at the New York Hospital, he collaborated with Dr Herbert Traut, a gynaecological pathologist, eventually publishing their landmark book in 1943, Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear. It described physiological changes of the menstrual cycle and the influence of hormones and malignancy on vaginal cytology. As it cost little, was easy to perform and could be interpreted accurately, the Pap smear found widespread use and resulted in a significant decline in the incidence of cervical cancer.
In 1951, Papanicolaou became Emeritus Professor at what was then Cornell University Medical College, where two laboratories now bear his name. Shortly thereafter, in 1954, he published Atlas of Exfoliative Cytology, a treatise containing comprehensive information on the cytology of both healthy and diseased tissue, not just in the female reproductive system but also in other organ systems. In total, Papanicolaou authored four books and over one hundred articles.
Although he retired from Cornell, Papanicolaou’s career was not finished. In 1961, Papanicolaou realized a long-time dream: the establishment of a cytologic research institute: He was named Cancer Research Institute of Miami director and by January 1962, research had begun. Papanicolaou died of a heart attack on February 19, 1962, at age 78. His research institute was later renamed in his honor.
George Nicholas Papanicolaou is best known for creating the Papanicolaou test, commonly known as the Pap smear, which revolutionised the early detection of cervical cancer. The scientific world recognised him with the Borden Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges (1940), the Amory Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1947), the prestigious Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research from the American Public Health Association (1950) and the Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society (1952). In 1960, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. His image was featured on the Greek 10,000-drachma currency note prior to its replacement by the euro and on various Greek stamps. In 1978, the US Postal Service honoured him with a commemorative 13-cent postage stamp.
An honorary membership of the Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Athens and the New York Academy of Sciences was conferred upon George Nicholas Papanicolaou.
Papanicolaou was a dedicated scientist, as modest as he was hardworking. He did not take vacations, worked seven days a week and relished immersing himself in the wonders of his research.
On the ferry home to Greece, Papanicolaou met Andromache (Mary) Mavroyeni, who was from a famous military family. The couple fell in love and married on September 25, 1910. For their honeymoon, the Papanicolaous traveled to Europe in 1911.
