Jerome F. Strauss, III, MD, PhD, Assistant Professorship of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Established in 2018, the professorship honors Jerome F. Strauss III, MD, PhD, a luminary in the field of reproductive medicine. Dr. Strauss is an emeritus professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine and former Dean of the School of Medicine of Virginia Commonwealth University. During his 30 years at Penn, he served as founding Director of the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health, Associate Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Program Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, and Associate Dean of the medical school.

Dr. Strauss was first introduced to working in a reproductive endocrinology research laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He then returned to Brown University during his senior year, where Dr. Strauss authored four academic journal articles and had an extensive knowledge base for someone of his age and experience. He credits his success at the Weizmann Institute to the generosity of numerous mentors, saying “I was fortunate that there were people willing to invest time and effort in me.” Reproductive endocrinology became a lifelong research focus, and mentorship became an essential element of his career.

After graduating from Brown, Strauss joined one of the country’s first National Institutes of Health-funded MD-PhD programs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where the goal was to train physicians to do clinically relevant research. His interest in developmental biology and endocrinology led him to post-graduate medical training in the School’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where he solidified his “motivation for medicine from a scientific perspective of wanting to improve well-being through advances in research and its application to patient care."

Current Chairholder

The Jerome F. Strauss, III, MD, PhD, Assistant Professorship of Obstetrics and Gynecology is currently open.

Previous Chairholder

• Monica Mainigi, MD 2018-2022