Virgil Preston Sydenstricker (1889 - 1964) was the epitome of the physician nutrition
specialist, clinical investigator and medical academician. He performed outstandingly
in research, education and service, the three areas in which medical faculty are evaluated
for promotion and tenure. For more than 30 years, his career focused on nutrition;
he was a pioneer in the area of nutritional deficiency disease. While based at the
Georgia state medical school in Augusta, his activities and influence extended nationally
and in Europe, as a civilian and in the military. In 1952, he was the only full-time
professor of medicine in the United States who had held the chair of medicine for
30 years.
While his contributions as a scientist had national and international recognition, his chief importance in the state of Georgia was probably his influence as a physician and educator. In 1958, approximately two of every five physicians in practice in Georgia had received their training at the Augusta medical school during Sydenstricker's 35 years as Professor of Medicine.
On December 10, 1973, ground was broken for the Virgil P. Sydenstricker Wing of Eugene Talmadge Memorial Hospital. The Sydenstricker Wing opened in 1976, named in honor of Dr. Virgil P. Sydenstricker, a world-renowned physician and longstanding chair of the Department of Medicine.
