Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the NAM features AAPI pioneers and NAM members who have worked tirelessly to benefit the health of others and advance the field of health and medicine in a Twitter campaign. On this page, you will find those featured in this year’s campaign, and those from years past.

We encourage you to share the tweets and graphics below with your networks throughout the year – not just during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

In 1906, Tsuruko Haraguchi was the first Japanese woman to receive a PhD in any subject. She earned her doctorate in psychology from Teacher’s College.

Margaret Chung, a well-known surgeon and philanthropist, established one of the first western medical schools in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1920. She was the first known Chinese-American female physician.

In 1968, Har Gobind Khorana, an Indian American biochemist, shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in genetics and protein synthesis.

Marjorie Mau is an endocrinologist and a health disparities researcher. She has conducted groundbreaking research on metabolic disorders among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Surgeon, billionaire, drug inventor, and businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong is the inventor of cancer drug Abraxane, and chairman of 3 non-profit organizations that fund research to erase disparities in access to health care and education.

In 2008 American biochemist Roger Tsien was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein which is used to study dynamic changes of cellular processes in living cells.

In 2009, biologist and former Royal Society president Venki Ramakrishnan shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”

Jennie Chin Hansen, a health care leader and geriatrics specialist, became the youngest and first Asian American president of AARP in 2008.

Min Chueh Chang was a Chinese American reproductive biologist whose work on in vitro fertilization led to the first “test tube baby.” He is also known for his co-invention of the first birth-control pill.

Fe del Mundo was a pediatrician who specialized in public health in rural communities. She founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines, and was the first woman to be named National Scientist of the Philippines in 1980.

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a Japanese American author, civil rights activist, and HIV/AIDS educator. Kuromiya created the Critical Path newsletter to increase access to information about HIV/AIDS. He also advocated for community engagement in research.

Richard Kekuni Akana Blaisdell was a community organizer and the first chair of medicine at University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1983, he authored a groundbreaking paper that called attention to the health of Native Hawaiians, and continued to advocate for culturally competent care to promote health equity.

Tsai-Fan Yu was a Chinese American physician and researcher who first discovered the cause of gout. She developed early treatments for gout which are still used today, and was the first woman appointed as a full professor at Icahn Mount Sinai.

Jōkichi Takamine was the first person to isolate and purify adrenaline, which was the first time this had been accomplished with a glandular hormone. His work was critical in the later development of epinephrine.

Anastacia Giron-Tupas, also known as the “Dean of Philippine Nursing,” received a certificate in public health from Penn and contributed to one of the first standard postgraduate curriculums in nursing. 

We have done our best to report facts and represent the individuals listed above accurately. We acknowledge that there is not often verified information about these individuals in traditional historical sources, which was the impetus for this work. The research for this campaign has taken place over many years, and we plan to update the page in the future with new information or corrections. If you have a question or comment, please email us at [email protected].