John Fleetezelle Anderson (March 14, 1873 – September 29, 1958) was the third director of the United States Hygienic Laboratory, the precursor to the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, from October 1, 1909 to November 19, 1915.

Early life and education

Anderson was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on March 14, 1871. He later studied medicine and received his M.D. degree in 1895 from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. After graduating he studied bacteriology abroad in Vienna, Paris, and the

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is a higher education institution with degree awarding powers and registered charity located in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Established in 1898, it was the first institution in the world dedicated ...

Career

Upon returning to the US in 1898, Anderson joined the Marine Hospital Service. In 1902, he was made assistant director of the Hygienic Laboratory, and in 1909, he became the director. He resigned in 1915 to become the director of the Research and Biological Laboratories and later vice president of E. R. Squibb & Sons. Anderson is noted for his research. He is considered an early expert in

Rocky Mountain spotted fever Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a bacterial disease spread by ticks. It typically begins with a fever and headache, which is followed a few days later with the development of a rash. The rash is generally made up of small spots of bleedin ...

. He developed an experimental measles model in rhesus monkeys with

Joseph Goldberger Joseph Goldberger ( sk, Jozef Goldberger, hu, Goldberger József) (July 16, 1874 – January 17, 1929) was an American physician and epidemiologist in the United States Public Health Service (PHS). As a public health official, he was an advocate ...

. In honor for his work on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a species of wood tick,

Dermacentor andersoni ''Dermacentor andersoni'', commonly known as the Rocky Mountain wood tick, is a hard tick, or member of the Ixodidae family, with three life stages including larvae, nymph, and finally adult, or, more entomologically, imago. This tick is genera ...

, was named in his honor in 1908. In 1955, the University of Virginia established the John F. Anderson Memorial Lectureship in his honor. Anderson died from heart disease in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on September 29, 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, John F. 1870s births 1958 deaths University of Virginia School of Medicine alumni Directors of the National Institutes of Health Taft administration personnel Woodrow Wilson administration personnel Marine Hospital Service personnel