American physician
John Putnam Merrill (March 10, 1917 – April 14, 1984) was an American physician and medical researcher. He led the team which performed the world's first successful kidney transplant. He generally credited as the "father of nephrology" or "the founder of nephrology," which is the scientific study of the kidney and its diseases.
Early life.
Merrill was born in 1917 in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1938, he attended the Harvard Medical School. He graduated in 1942; and he was an intern at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
During World War II, he served for four years in the Army. Two years were spent on Kwajalein Island in the Pacific with "Operation Crossroads."
Career.
Merrill's entire career was spent in Boston at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now known as Brigham and Women's Hospital. His work as a medical researcher began in 1947. As a resident in medicine, he was assigned to head the team which developed an artificial kidney (the Brigham-Kolff dialyzers) for use in the treatment of acute and chronic kidney failure.
In 1950, Merrill began teaching at Harvard Medical School.
In 1954, Merrill headed the multidisciplinary team that performed the first successful transplant of a kidney between identical twin brothers.
Merrill was made a full professor at Harvard Medical School in 1970. His legacy is found in his students and in those doctors he mentored.
Chronology.
Merrill's career was cut short when he died on April 14, 1984, in a boating accident while vacationing in the Bahamas.
Selected works.
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about John Merrill, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 20+ works in 30+ publications in 3 languages and 400+ library holdings .
Notes.
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 8. Dept of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File