1915-
American physician and researcher who, in collaboration with Virginia Johnson, pioneered in the physiological study of human sexual function.

William Masters was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up in Kansas City, and did his undergraduate work at Hamilton College. He received his M.D. degree in 1943 from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where he assisted in the laboratory research of George Washington Corner, who was studying and comparing the reproductive systems of animals and humans. Masters's interest in the study of

sexuality was reinforced when he learned of the research done by Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) at the University of Indiana, where he had interviewed men and women about their sexual experiences. Masters completed his internship and residency at St. Louis Hospital and Barnes Hospital,...