Academic medicine is a unique medical career wherein a doctor must excel in patient care, teaching and research. Philip J. Snodgrass, M.D. graduated from Harvard College in 1949 and from Harvard Medical School in 1953. He was accepted for training at the Peter Bent Brigham, a Harvard teaching hospital where many of the advances were happening. Dr. Snodgrass takes the reader through internship and residency years in internal medicine, interrupted by two years in Naval aviation medicine. He describes research training in biophysics, two years as chief medical resident and ten years as chief of gastroenterology at the Brigham, serving under the legendary George W. Thorn, the chief of medicine. In 1973 Dr. Snodgrass left Boston to become professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and chief of the medical service at a large veterans hospital in Indianapolis. His research led to a sabbatical in Oxford, England in the laboratory of Sir Hans Krebs. Dr. Snodgrass writes in reportorial style that allows the readers to draw their own conclusions about his experiences. Through this one doctor's career the readers will learn about this amazing world which impacts on all our lives.