Letter from Benjamin Alexander to Dr. Wessler regarding Beth Israel Hospital Medical Senior Staff Dinner

Benjamin Alexander (1909-1978), B.A., 1930, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; M.D., 1934, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, was Associate Director of the Medical Service at Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Alexander began his career as a house officer in medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and a teaching fellow in biological chemistry at HMS. He researched thiamine and intermediary metabolism before shifting focus to hematology and the study of blood clotting factors and mechanisms. In 1949, he and his colleagues successfully identified SPCA (serum pro-thrombin conversion accelerator), now known as factor VII, which spurs coagulation in the presence of thromboplastin. Two years later, he observed congenital deficiency of factor VII in a patient. Over the course of his career, Alexander also made significant research contributions to the study of congenital hemorrhagic disorders, like hemophilia and von Willebrand’s disease. Upon his departure from HMS in 1966, Alexander led the coagulation laboratory at the New York Blood Center of the Community Blood Council of Greater New York and served as Clinical Professor of Medicine at Cornell College of Medicine.