1993 Metcalf Cup & Prize

Joel Caslowitz, MED

In the twenty-four years that Joel Caslowitz has taught medicine at Boston University, colleagues and students have recognized from the first that his knowledge of clinical medicine is encyclopaedic in breadth and profound in detail. Students describe his ability to convey his vast fund of knowledge, frequently in the pressurized atmosphere of an emergency-room admission, as extraordinary. He moves beyond the transmission of facts to impart a genuine and systematic understanding of clinical phenomena and their pathophysiological foundations. Students consistently praise his teaching for its clarity. A student writes: “His teaching…was always lively, engaging, thought-provoking, and demanding.” Like all great teachers, Joel Caslowitz draws his students past the boundaries of their prior and limiting understandings. He has ennobled his profession and performed a profound service by inviting thousands of students of medicine to cross beyond their boundaries.

His students look up to Dr. Caslowitz not only as a mentor but as a role model: a former student writes, “When asked about their career plans, many students would answer, ‘I want to be a Dr. Caslowitz.”

Boston University produces physicians of greater insight and skill because of Dr. Caslowitz’s abundant skill in teaching. He embodies the excellence in teaching which the Metcalf Cup and Prize was designed to honor.