Abraham Flexner

Abraham Flexner (born Nov. 13, 1866, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 21, 1959, Falls Church, Va.) was an educator who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical and science education to American colleges and universities.

Founder and director of a progressive college-preparatory school in Louisville (1890–1904), Flexner issued an appraisal of American educational institutions (The American College: A Criticism; 1908) that earned him a Carnegie Foundation commission to survey the quality of the 155 medical colleges in the United States and Canada. His report (1910) had an immediate and sensational impact on American medical education. Many of the colleges that were severely criticized by Flexner closed soon after publication of the report; others initiated extensive revisions of their policies and curricula.

As secretary to the Rockefeller Foundation’s General Education Board (1913–28), he actively channeled more than half a billion dollars from private donors into the improvement of American medical education. In 1930 he realized his ambition to create a model centre for higher learning when he founded the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. As the institute’s first director (1930–39), Flexner gathered together several of the world’s most distinguished scientists, highlighted by the arrival there in 1933 of Albert Einstein.