University of Connecticut School of Medicine

The University of Connecticut School of Medicine is a medical school located in Farmington, Connecticut. It was founded in 1961 and graduated its first class in 1972. Its mission is “education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels for practitioners, teachers, and researchers, conducted in an environment of exemplary patient care, research, and public service.”The school is part of UConn Health, along with the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and John Dempsey Hospital. UConn Health is also a renowned biomedical research center, specializing in genetics, aging, orthopaedics and neurology. In 2012, Dr. Cato Laurencin’s research on ACL tissue regeneration was named one of National Geographic’s 100 Scientific Discoveries That Changed the World.HistoryThe School of Medicine was established in 1961 following legislation by the Connecticut General Assembly. The vote set aside $2 million to plan and develop medical and dental schools for the residents of Connecticut. In 1962, the 106-acre campus in Farmington, seven miles west of Hartford, was selected from forty different options. Dr. Lyman Maynard Stowe was appointed to be the first dean of the medical school; however, Stowe died unexpectedly in 1965 and John Patterson was named dean. The medical school opened its doors in 1968 in a temporary building while construction of the building continued. Construction was completed in 1972, the same year the school graduated its first class of twenty-nine physicians. Along with the medical and dental schools, John Dempsey Hospital, named after the governor who signed the initial legislation, was established as a 137-bed university hospital and admitted its first patient in 1975.