Jacqueline Noonan - Biography

Biography

Noonan was born October 28, 1921 in Burlington, Vermont. She studied chemistry at Albertus Magnus College, medicine at the University of Vermont, and became certified in her field in Boston in 1956. She subsequently began work at the University of Iowa. As their first pediatric cardiologist, she noticed that children with a rare type of heart defect called pulmonary valve stenosis often had a characteristic physical appearance with short stature, webbed neck, wide-spaced eyes, and low-set ears. She presented her first paper on the subject in 1963, and after several more papers and recognition, the condition was officially named Noonan syndrome in 1971. Dr. Noonan moved on to the fledgling University of Kentucky medical school in 1961, where she served for over forty years. An endowed chair in pediatric research has been established in her name, and she is semi-retired as of 2007.