Purnell Whittington Choppin (July 4, 1929 – July 3, 2021) was an American

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, thei ...

. He served on the faculty of Rockefeller University for nearly thirty years, becoming the

Leon Hess Leon Hess (March 14, 1914 – May 7, 1999) was an American businessman, the founder of the Hess Corporation and the owner of the New York Jets. Hess built an oil terminal in New Jersey after the Great Depression, building his first refinery i ...

Professor of Virology. He moved to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1985, became the president of the institute in 1987, and retired in 1999, succeeded by

Thomas Cech Thomas Robert Cech (born December 8, 1947) is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, ...

. Until his death in 2021, he was the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C, supported by a university consortium consisting of Rockefeller,

Weill Cornell Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with N ...

, and

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

Early life and education

Choppin was born on July 4, 1929, in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

. He attended medical school at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

and received an

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...

in 1953. Before beginning his independent research career, Choppin did his

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

and

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with ...

and Barnes Hospital in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He also served as a

medical officer A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Academic career

Choppin began work at Rockefeller in 1957 as a research fellow and joined the faculty there in 1959, heading a virology research program focused on the

influenza virus ''Orthomyxoviridae'' (from Greek ὀρθός, ''orthós'' 'straight' + μύξα, ''mýxa'' 'mucus') is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses. It includes seven genera: ''Alphainfluenzavirus'', ''Betainfluenzavirus'', '' Gammainfluenzavirus'', ' ...

. He became a full professor and senior physician at Rockefeller in 1970, and served in various administrative roles including the vice president of academic programs and the dean of graduate studies. In 1985 Choppin moved from his position as the

Professor of Virology at Rockefeller to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he served as vice president and chief scientific officer. He assumed the presidency in 1987, succeeding Donald Fredrickson. During his presidency, both the institute's budget and its number of scientists increased dramatically. Choppin retired from HHMI at the end of 1999, succeeded by

. Choppin became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977. He received the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

's Howard Taylor Ricketts Award in 1978 and the National Academy of Sciences' Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology in 1984. In the early 1980s, Choppin was among the group of American virologists who helped organize and became the founding members of the

American Society for Virology The American Society for Virology (ASV) is an American scientific society serving the community of researchers in virology. The organization was founded in 1981 and was the first scientific society in the world dedicated exclusively to virology. ...

. He was elected to both the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1988.

References

External links

Yellow Fever, A Success Story
- 2013 talk by Purnell Choppin at a meeting of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choppin, Purnell W. 1929 births 2021 deaths American virologists Louisiana State University alumni Rockefeller University faculty People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the National Academy of Medicine