Lynne M. Reid

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Photograph of Lynne M. Reid with microscope
circa 1989

Lynne McArthur Reid was born in Australia in 1923, and expressed an interest in becoming a doctor at a very young age.  After receiving her M.B. and B.S. (the contemporary Australian equivalent of an M.D.) from Melbourne Medical School in 1946, she became the first researcher to receive a grant in pathology from the National Health and Medical Research Council at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Over the next 30 years, Reid held various distinguished positions in Australia, England (where she became the first woman to achieve the rank of Professor of Experimental Pathology), and the United States.

In 1975, Reid was appointed S. Burt Wolbach Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Pathologist-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital, positions she held until her retirement in 1989. Reid’s research focused on thoracic medicine; her early work in Australia centered on bronchiectasis. Upon moving to London, Reid began to investigate additional thoracic conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. She also studied the physical and chemical nature of the mucous produced in the lungs as a result of these diseases and the cell types included in the mucous. Her interests broadened during her career to include pulmonary hypertension and lung growth. Reid is known for developing the Reid Index, which is a method of determining the degree of hypertrophy of the bronchial glands caused by chronic bronchitis.

Lynne M. Reid