Harry Eagle was an American physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and pathologist

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

. He studied, and later worked, at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 before moving on to the National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

. From 1961 to 1988 he worked at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a graduate school of Yeshiva University. It is a not-for-profit, private, nonsectarian medical school located on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Morris Park neighborhood of the borough of the Bronx of New York City...

. He is best known for Eagle's minimal essential medium

Eagle's minimal essential medium

Eagle's minimal essential medium is a cell culture medium developed by Harry Eagle that can be used to maintain cells in tissue culture.It contains:* amino acids...

, which is important in understanding how human and mammalian cells reproduce. In 1973, he was a co-winner of the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers that have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemistry....

. In 1987, he was awarded the National Medal of Science

National Medal of Science

The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...

 for his work in the Biological Sciences.

Articles

• J. E. Darnell, L. Levintow, M. D. Scharff: Harry Eagle. J Cellular Physiology (1970) 76,3: S. 241-252 PMID 4925975
• A. Gilman: Presentation of the Academy Medal to Harry Eagle, M. D. Bull N Y Acad Med. (1970) 46(9): S. 666-669 PMID 4916300