JoAnn E. Manson '75, one of the nation's foremost experts on women's health, has had a very personal interest in medicine from an early age

It was then that her cousin developed juvenile-onset diabetes. And Manson's mother was a medical social worker and her father was a scientist, Medicine and science were frequent topics of discussion around the house.

Now, almost 40 years later, Manson is a principal investigator for the largest study ever of women's health issues, the co-director of women's health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and one of the top 10 "Heroes in Women's Health" named by American Health for Women magazine.

The future doctor, however, was not solely concentrated on medicine during her undergraduate years at North House, and later Quincy House. "I was more interested in the arts at that time," she says.

Manson wrote dance reviews for the Harvard Independent and particularly enjoyed biology courses with Pelegrino University Research Professor E.O. Wilson, as well as classes on China and the law. "My fondest memories are of time at the Quincy House grill and Tommy's Lunch," she says.

She refers to the people she met during her undergraduate years as the true highlight of her time at Harvard. "You meet people from different cultures and different countries, with different life experiences," she says. Quincy House was also the home of Christopher N. Ames '75, Manson's future husband.

After graduating from Harvard, Manson wasted no time in starting her medical career. She attended Case Western Reserve Union University Medical School, and then returned to Boston to complete an internship and residency in internal medicine, followed by a fellowship in endocrinology. She studied biostatistics at the Harvard Medical School and has been there ever since.

But it was a serious family illness that turned Manson toward women's health, the field that became her specialty. Manson's mother developed ovarian cancer in 1979 and died several months later.