Jim Perkins - Featured Faculty 2013

Prof. Perkins is best known as the illustrator of many of today’s most important medical textbooks. For over twenty years, he has been the sole illustrator of the "Robbins" series of pathology texts published by Elsevier. The flagship of the series, Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, is used in most medical school pathology courses worldwide. Translated into thirteen languages, it is one of the most successful medical books of all time. Among the forty books that Perkins has illustrated are other notable titles, including Robbins Basic Pathology, Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary and Guyton's Textbook of Medical Physiology.

Perkins is also part of a small team of illustrators and physicians who carry on the work of the late Dr. Frank H. Netter, widely regarded as the greatest medical illustrator of the 20th Century. Perkins has contributed new artwork to more than twenty titles bearing the Netter name. He also serves as artistic and anatomy consultant for Netter's 3D Interactive Anatomy.

In addition to his published artwork, Perkins has written scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as human lung anatomy, molecular graphics, digital color management, and the use of interactive media for pre-surgical planning and intra-operative guidance.

Perkins is a Board Certified Medical Illustrator and a Fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI). He has earned the AMI's Outstanding Service Award, the AMI Literary Award (for best scholarly publication), and the 2005 AMI Illustrated Medical Book Award. In 2006, Perkins was selected as the Nancy Grahame Joy Visiting Lecturer in the Biomedical Communications Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. In 2011, he was one of twenty-three illustrators worldwide (including just three from the U.S.) whose work was selected for the exhibition "Anatomy of an Image" by the Association Européenne des Illustrateurs Médicaux et Scientifiques. In 2012, three of his works received BMA Book Awards (including the Illustrated Book Award) from the British Medical Association.