Clement Alfred Finch (July 4, 1915 – June 28, 2010) was an American physician specializing in hematology whose research on iron metabolism in the bloodstream at the University of Washington led to significant advancements in accurately diagnosing and treating anemia during a time period in which little was known about this aspect of the body.
Finch graduated from Union College in 1936 and enrolled at the University of Rochester Medical School in the late 1930s, from which he worked with Nobel Prize-winner George Whipple and published his first paper on hemoglobin regeneration in dogs in the Journal of Experimental Medicine as a second-year student.
Ross is responsible for introducing Finch to academic medicine, collaborating on work on iron metabolism and blood preservation which was relevant to the political setting of the time with the nation at war.
[2] In 1948 after not being able to join the military due to pneumonia, Finch started his career at the University of Washington, which he preferred for the landscape and surrounding environment which offered him access to his favorite hobbies such as mountain climbing.
During a period in which little was known about iron-deficiency anemia, how often it occurred or the principles of iron metabolism, Finch made significant findings in his research at the University of Washington throughout his 60-year tenure using radioisotopes to measure the body's production of red cells and their life span.
Additional articles included: The Effect of Erythroid Hyperplasia on iron balance (1988), and Intact Transferrin Receptors in Human Plasma and Their Relation to Erythropoisis in blood (1990).