Karl, Irene E., 1915-2006.

Irene E. (Stark) Karl was an American biochemist and Research Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Karl completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1940, becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in science from the University of Wisconsin. She worked as a biochemist at the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis from 1941-1943, leaving to raise her family. Karl resumed her career at Washington University in 1959, became instructor for the Metabolism Division in 1966, rising quickly through the ranks to research professor in medicine. She was an authority on muscle metabolism and her research focused on metabolism disorders such as diabetes and sepsis (blood poisoning). Karl published over 150 articles in scientific journals.

Michael M. Karl was a nationally known American internist and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. He was co-founder with I. Jerome Flance, M.D., of the Maryland Medical Group, where he practiced medicine in St. Louis for almost 50 years. He introduced Missouri's first needle biopsy of the liver in 1946. Karl was one of few general internists to become a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He was among the first to call for family leave protections for working parents as part of the national advisory committee of the White House Conference on the Family from 1978-1980. Active in national health policy and medical education, he worked for the establishment of national health insurance for all people regardless of their capacity to pay. In St. Louis, he was the co-organizer of one of the first health services for the poor, the Jeff-Vander-Lou Medical Clinic.