Stephen Pemberton, PhD, is an associate professor in the federated department of history at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a historian of medicine and public health, biomedical sciences and technology.  In addition to Pemberton’s continued research on the problems associated with the historical management of chronic diseases, he is investigating the role of hematologists in the development of modem genetic medicine. He is interested in the cultural, social and health implications of blood as a commodity.

Pemberton is author, most recently, of The Bleeding Disease: Hemophilia and the Unintended Consequences of Medical Progress (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). The book examines the promising and perilous history of American efforts to manage hemophilia in the twentieth century, including the era of tainted transfusions in the 1980s that witnessed the vast majority of Americans with hemophilia contracting HIV/AIDS through their blood plasma treatments.

He is also co-author of The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine: Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis and Sickle Cell Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). The Association of American Publishers recognized The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine as the best scholarly book in the history of science for 2006. The book treats the histories of Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia as a lens for understanding how innovative medicine and cultural diversity have intersected in America.

Pemberton was co-recipient of the 2006 Association of American Publishers/Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division book award in the history of science category.

He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2001.



Last update: March 28, 2012