 After failing to obtain a place in medical school he earned an MSc (1939) and an anatomy instructorship at New York University before finally securing a place in NYU medical school in 1941.He completed his degree (Alpha Omega Alpha) in 1945, and after internships in Boston and two years in the army he returned to New York to do an internal medicine residency at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital.Berson's scientific work started in 1950, when he became a member of the Radioisotope Service of the hospital, where he teamed with Rosalyn Yalow in what eventually became an historic research partnership.