Erna Lesky

Erna Lesky (1911 to 1986) was an Austrian pediatrician and historian of medicine, and the first woman on the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. Born in Hartberg, she earned her M.D. at Vienna in 1936 and worked as a pediatrician through the Second World War, then turned to history and philology, finishing a doctoral dissertation in 1950 and habilitating in medical history in 1957. In 1960 she became head of the university's Neuburger Institute for the History of Medicine, rebuilding it after the war, and she was a full professor from 1966 until she retired in 1979. Her monographs on the Viennese Medical School, on Jan Evangelista Purkyně and on Franz Joseph Gall made her a leading medical historian, and her honours included the Esculape d'Or and the William H. Welch Medal. The article also records that she held Nazi-era posts, including medical director of a mother and child home from 1940 to 1945.