Sherwin B. Nuland

He was a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution. He is the father of Victoria Nuland, who served as under secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2021 to 2024.

Nuland studied at New York University and Yale School of Medicine. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is surgeon. Employment is recorded with Yale School of Medicine. Works named in the authority record are How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter. Distinctions recorded are National Book Award and National Book Award for Nonfiction.

• Name — Sherwin B. Nuland • Birth Name — Shepsel Ber Nudelman • Born — 8 December 1930 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 3 March 2014 • Place of death — Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. • Fields — Surgeon, writer, educator • Workplaces — Yale School of Medicine • Education — Bronx High School of Science New York University Yale School of Medicine • Known for — How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter • Awards — 1994 National Book Award • Children — 4, including Victoria • Spouse — * Rhona L. Goulston (divorced)

Nuland was born Shepsel Ber Nudelman in The Bronx, New York City, on December 8, 1930, to Jewish immigrant parents, Meyer Nudelman, a Moldovan Jewish garment repairman, 1889–1958 and Vitsche Lutsky, a Belarusian Jew, 1893–1941. Although raised in a traditional Orthodox Jewish home, he came to consider himself agnostic, but continued to attend synagogue. As a Jew, he witnessed anti-Semitic discrimination against his cousin and changed his name when he applied to college to ensure admittance. Nuland was a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science, New York University and Yale School of Medicine, where he obtained his M.D. degree and also completed a residency in surgery. At the time of his death, he was living in Connecticut with his second wife, Sarah Nuland (née Peterson). He had four children, two from each marriage. His daughter Victoria Nuland, a career foreign service officer, has notably been the current under secretary of State for Political Affairs since May 2021. Dr. Nuland avowed a "unique relationship" with death. The 1994 National Book Award for nonfiction was granted to his How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter. In a 2001 TED talk, which was released in October 2007, Nuland spoke of his severe depression and obsessive thoughts in the early 1970s, probably caused by his difficult childhood and the dissolution of his first marriage. As drug therapy remained ineffective, a lobotomy was suggested, but his treating resident suggested electroshock therapy instead, which led to his recovery. Twelve years after the talk, TED's Curator, Chris Anderson, recalled that Nuland's talk "remains one of the most powerful moments in the conference’s history." Nuland was also one of the featured lecturers at One Day University. In 2005, Nuland taught a series of lectures for the Teaching Company's The Great Courses on the history of Western medicine titled Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography. Nuland died on March 3, 2014, at his home in Hamden, Connecticut, of prostate cancer.