History of the Department
The origin of the University of Tennessee can be traced to 1794 when the Legislature of the Federal Territory chartered Blount College in Knoxville (William Blount was the governor of the territory). The college became East Tennessee State College in 1807, was designated a Federal Land-Grant Institution in 1869, and was named the University of Tennessee in 1879. Over the years, the University grew to comprise 21 different colleges in several locations.
In 1911, the University of Tennessee first launched its Memphis campus, dedicating it solely to health science education and research. Seed programs in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy quickly flourished, and within a few short years, new programs were initiated in health professions, graduate health sciences and nursing. Each of those programs grew to become a college in its own right. In 1963, the UT Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville, based at the UT Medical Center, became part of the UT Health Science Center. In 1974, the UT College of Medicine in Chattanooga, based at Erlanger Health System, joined the UTHSC system. In 2014, Saint Thomas Health in Nashville began collaborating with UTHSC to create a Nashville campus.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis has become one of the country's largest and most comprehensive health sciences programs. Currently, more than 3,100 students are enrolled in the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Basic Medical Sciences, Community and Allied Health Professions, and the Graduate School of Medical Sciences. As the statewide, public, academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center trains the next generation of health care providers for Tennessee, cares for the people from one end of the state to the other, and researches the cures for the diseases that most affect all who call Tennessee home. UTHSC College of Medicine trains more than 1,416 residents and fellows per year and was awarded over $100 million in grant and contracts in FY 2023.
The vision of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is Healthy Tennesseans and Thriving Communities. The mission of the UTHSC is to transform lives through collaborative and inclusive education, research/ scholarship, clinical care, and public service.
When the University of Tennessee College of Medicine was established in 1911, the first professor and chairman of Psychiatry and Neurology was Dr. B. F. Turner, the "father" of Neuropsychiatry in Memphis. Neurology became independent of psychiatry in the 1930s, when Dr. Nicholas Gott, a neurosurgeon, assumed the chairmanship. He was succeeded by a neurologist, Dr. Gene M. Lassiter, in 1957, and by Dr. Robert Utterback in 1959. Under Dr. Utterback's leadership, Neurology became a major teaching and scientific discipline, and achieved independent Departmental status in 1967. Basic research was greatly expanded and the Charles B. Stout Neuroscience Mass Spectrometry Laboratory was established. After Dr. Utterback's untimely death in 1974, a number of nationally eminent neurologists headed the Department. In 1992, Dr. William Pulsinelli was recruited as Chair of Neurology from Cornell Medical Center/New York Hospital and served until 2014. After 20 years of his devoted service to the program, Dr. Andrei V. Alexandrov was named as the next Chair of Neurology in 2014. Under his leadership till 2023, UTHSC Neurology became world renowned stroke program.
In January 2024, Hae Won Shin, MD, has named Chair of the Department of Neurology and Semmes Murphey Professor of Excellence at the UTHSC College of Medicine. Prior to the arrival, she served as an Executive Vice Chair of Neurology and Epilepsy Director at University of New Mexico. Throughout her career, she has provided comprehensive and advanced epilepsy care to patients with refractory epilepsy including neuromodulation and surgical treatment, trained the next generation neurologists and epileptologists, and participated in cutting edge transitional neuromodulation and epilepsy research in New Mexico and North Carolina.