Robert S. Desowitz (January 2, 1926 – March 24, 2008) was a researcher of
tropical medicine,
parasites, and
malaria, and an author.
Life and career
Desowitz was born in New York, where he attended
Niagara Falls High School. He served in the
United States Army from 1944 to 1946. He received a bachelor's degree from the
University at Buffalo in 1948. He earned a double doctorate in
parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...
and medical biology from the University of London in 1951.
From 1951 to 1960, he worked for West African Institute for
Trypanosomiasis Research in Vom, Nigeria.
In 1960, he joined the University of Malaya in Singapore as Professor of Parasitology, where he worked until 1965. He then worked as Chief of the
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Laboratory's Department of Parasitology in Bangkok from 1965 to 1968.
While working there, he spent time doing research in Papua New Guinea.
Desowitz worked from 1968 to 1995 as a professor in public health, tropical medicine, and microbiology at the
John A. Burns School of Medicine
The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) is part of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and is located on the island of O‘ahu, approximately three miles west of the university's Mānoa campus. The school was named after former Hawaiia ...
at the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
During his tenure there, he spent time researching malaria in
Kenya.
Upon retirement as
professor emeritus from the University of Hawaii, Desowitz worked as adjunct professor of epidemiology at the
University of North Carolina's School of Public Health.
He died March 24, 2008, in
Pinehurst, North Carolina
Pinehurst is a village in Moore County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 13,124. It is home of the historic Pinehurst Resort, a Golf resort, which has hosted multiple United States Open Champion ...
.
Bibliography
* ''New Guinea Tape Worms and Jewish Grandmothers'', 1987
* ''The Thorn in the Starfish'', 1988
* ''The Malaria Capers'', 1991
* ''Tropical Diseases: From 50, 000 BC to 2500 AD'', 1997
* ''Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria: Torrid Diseases in a Temperate World'', 1997
* ''Federal Body Snatchers and the New Guinea Virus: Tales of Parasites, People and Politics'', 2004
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desowitz, Robert S.
1926 births
2008 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Academic staff of the National University of Singapore
University at Buffalo alumni
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty
20th-century American biologists
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers