updated list of dead microbiologists

Date?: Dr. C. Bruton

--Expertise: He had just produced a paper on a new strain of CJD. He was a CJD specialist who was killed before his work was announced to the public.

--Circumstance of Death: died in a car crash.

 

 

1994/95?: Dr. Jawad Al Aubaidi

--Expertise: Veterinary mycoplasma and had worked with various mycoplasmas in the 1980s at Plum Island.

--Circumstance of Death: He was killed in his native Iraq while he was changing a flat tire and hit by a truck.

Source: Patricia A. Doyle, PhD

 

 

1996: Tsunao Saitoh, 46

--Expertise: A leading Alzheimer's researcher

--Circumstance of Death: He and his 13 year-old daughter were killed in La Jolla, California, in what a Reuters report described as a "very professionally done" shooting. He was dead behind the wheel of the car, the side window had been shot out, and the door was open. His daughter appeared to have tried to run away and she was shot dead, also.

 

 

Dec 25, 1997: Sidney Harshman, 67

--Expertise: Professor of microbiology and immunology.

"He was the world's leading expert on staphylococcal alpha toxins," according to Conrad Wagner, professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt and a close friend of Professor Harshman. "He also deeply cared for other people and was always eager to help his students and colleagues."

--Circumstance of Death: Complications of diabetes

 

 

July 10, 1998: Elizabeth A. Rich, M.D., 46

--Expertise: An associate professor with tenure in the pulmonary division of the Department of Medicine at CWRU and University Hospitals of Cleveland. She was also a member of the executive committee for the Center for AIDS Research and directed the biosafety level 3 facility, a specialized laboratory for the handling of HIV, virulent TB bacteria, and other infectious agents.

--Circumstance of Death: Killed in a traffic accident while visiting family in Tennessee

 

 

September 1998: Jonathan Mann, 51

--Expertise: Founding director of the World Health Organisation's global Aids programme and founded Project SIDA in Zaire, the most comprehensive Aids research effort in Africa at the time, and in 1986 he joined the WHO to lead the global response against Aids. He became director of WHO's global programme on Aids which later became the UNAids programme. He then became director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, which was set up at Harvard School of Public Health in 1993. He caused controversy earlier this year in the post when he accused the US National Institutes of Health of violating human rights by failing to act quickly on developing Aids vaccines.

--Circumstance of Death: Died in the Swissair Flight 111 crash in Canada.

 

 

April 15, 2000: Walter W. Shervington, M.D., 62

--Expertise: An extensive writer/ lecturer/ researcher about mental health and AIDS in the African American community.

--Circumstance of Death: Died of cancer at Tulane Medical Hospital.

 

 

July 16, 2000: Mike Thomas, 35

--Expertise: A microbiologist at the Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville.

--Circumstance of Death: Died a few days after examining a sample taken from a 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed with meningitis and survived.

 

 

December 25, 2000: Linda Reese, 52

--Expertise: Microbiologist working with victims of meningitis.

--Circumstance of Death: Died three days after she studied a sample from Tricia Zailo, 19, a Fairfield, N.J., resident who was a sophomore at Michigan State University. Tricia Zailo died Dec. 18, a few days after she returned home for the holidays.

 

 

May 7 2001: Professor Janusz Jeljaszewicz

--Expertise: Expert in Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections. His main scientific interests and achievements were in the mechanism of action and biological properties of staphylococcal toxins, and included the immunomodulatory properties and experimental treatment of tumours by Propionibacterium.

 

 

November 2001: Yaacov Matzner, 54 --Expertise: Dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem and chairman of the Israel Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusions, was the son of Holocaust survivors. One of the world's experts on blood diseases including familiar Mediterranean fever (FMF), Matzner conducted research that led to a genetic test for FMF. He was working on cloning the gene connected to FMF and investigating the normal physiological function of amyloid A, a protein often found in high levels in people with blood cancer.

--Circumstance of Death: Professors Yaacov Matzner and Amiram Eldor were on their way back to Israel via Switzerland when their plane came down in dense forest three kilometres short of the landing field.

 

 

November 2001: Professor Amiram Eldor, 59

--Expertise: Head of the haematology institute, Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital and worked for years at Hadassah-University Hospital's haematology department but left for his native Tel Aviv in 1993 to head the haematology institute at Ichilov Hospital. He was an internationally known expert on blood clotting especially in women who had repeated miscarriages and was a member of a team that identified eight new anti-clotting agents in the saliva of leeches.

--Circumstance of Death: Professors Yaacov Matzner and Amiram Eldor were on their way back to Israel via Switzerland when their plane came down in dense forest three kilometres short of the landing field.

 

 

November 6, 2001: Jeffrey Paris Wall, 41

--Expertise: He was a biomedical expert who held a medical degree, and he also specialized in patent and intellectual property.

--Circumstance of Death: Mr. Walls body was found sprawled next to a three-story parking structure near his office. He had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

 

Nov. 16, 2001: Don C. Wiley, 57

--Expertise: One of the foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza.

--Circumstance of Death: Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was found Dec. 20 in the Mississippi River.

 

 

Nov. 21, 2001: Vladimir Pasechnik, 64

--Expertise: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector; defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, played a huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how to modify cruise missiles to deliver the agents of mass biological destruction.

--Background: founded Regma Biotechnologies company in Britain, a laboratory at Porton Down, the country´s chem-bio warfare defense establishment. Regma currently has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax".

--Circumstance of Death: The pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also happened to be associated with Britain´s spy agency, concluded he died of a stroke. Details of the postmortem were not revealed at an inquest, in which the press was given no prior notice. Colleagues who had worked with Pasechnik said he was in good health.

 

 

Dec. 10, 2001: Robert M. Schwartz, 57

--Expertise: Expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic micro-organisms, founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and the Executive Director of Research and Development at Virginia´s Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon.

--Circumstance of Death: stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans have been charged.

 

 

Dec. 14, 2001: Nguyen Van Set, 44

--Expertise: animal diseases facility of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization had just come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be modified to affect smallpox.

--Circumstance of Death: died at work in Geelong, Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen.

 

 

January 2002: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski.

--Expertise: Two microbiologists. Both were well known around the world and members of the Russian Academy of Science.

--Circumstance of Death: Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and Brushlinski was killed in Moscow.

 

 

January 28, 2002: David W. Barry, 58

--Expertise: Scientist who codiscovered AZT, the antiviral drug that is considered the first effective treatment for AIDS.

--Circumstance of Death: unknown

 

 

Feb. 9, 2002: Victor Korshunov, 56

--Expertise: Expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world

--Circumstance of Death: bashed over the head near his home in Moscow.

 

 

Feb. 14, 2002: Ian Langford, 40

--Expertise: expert in environmental risks and disease.

--Circumstance of Death: found dead in his home near Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair.

 

 

Feb. 28, 2002: Tanya Holzmayer, 46

--Expertise: a Russian who moved to the U.S. in 1989, focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine.

--Circumstance of Death: killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, who shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza delivery. Then he shot himself.

 

 

Feb. 28, 2002: Guyang Huang, 38

--Expertise: Microbiologist

--Circumstance of Death: Apparently shot himself after shooting fellow microbiologist, Tanya Holzmayer, seven times.

 

 

March 24, 2002: David Wynn-Williams, 55

--Expertise: Respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer space.

--Circumstance of Death: Died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He was hit by a car while he was jogging.

 

 

March 25, 2002: Steven Mostow, 63

--Expertise: Known as "Dr. Flu" for his expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in bioterrorism of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre.

--Circumstance of Death: died when the airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.

 

 

Nov. 12, 2002: Benito Que, 52

--Expertise: Expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School

--Circumstance of Death: Que left his laboratory after receiving a telephone call. Shortly afterward he was found comatose in the parking lot of the Miami Medical School. He died without regaining consciousness. Police said he had suffered a heart attack. His family insisted he had been in perfect health and claimed four men attacked him. But, later, oddly, the family inquest returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

 

 

April 2003: Carlo Urbani, 46

--Expertise: A dedicated and internationally respected Italian epidemiologist, who did work of enduring value combating infectious illness around the world.

--Circumstance of Death: Died in Bangkok from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) - the new disease that he had helped to identify. Thanks to his prompt action, the epidemic was contained in Vietnam. However, because of close daily contact with SARS patients, he contracted the infection. On March 11, he was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok and isolated. Less than three weeks later he died.

 

 

June 24, 2003: Dr. Leland Rickman of UCSD, 47

A resident of Carmel Valley

--Expertise: An expert in infectious disease who helped the county prepare to fight bioterrorism after Sept. 11.

--Circumstance of Death: He was in the African nation of Lesotho with Dr. Chris Mathews of UCSD, the director of the university's Owen Clinic for AIDS patients. Dr. Rickman had complained of a headache and had gone to lie down. When he didn't appear for dinner, Mathews checked on him and found him dead. A cause has not yet been determined.

 

 

July 18, 2003: Dr. David Kelly, 59

--Expertise: Biological warfare weapons specialist, senior post at the Ministry of Defense, an expert on DNA sequencing when he was head of microbiology at Porton Down and worked with two American scientists, Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57.

--Helped Vladimir Pasechnik found Regma Biotechnologies, which has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax"

--Circumstance of Death: He was found dead after seemingly slashing his wrist in a wooded area near his home at Southmoor, Oxfordshire.

 

 

Oct 11 or 24, 2003: Michael Perich, 46

--Expertise: LSU professor who helped fight the spread of the West Nile virus. Perich worked with the East Baton Rouge Parish Mosquito Control and Rodent Abatement District to determine whether mosquitoes in the area carried West Nile.

--Circumstance of Death: Walker Police Chief Elton Burns said Sunday that Perich of 5227 River Bend Blvd., Baton Rouge, crashed his Ford pickup truck about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, while heading west on Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish. Perich's truck veered right off the highway about 3 miles east of Walker, flipped and landed in rainwater, Burns said. Perich, who was wearing his seat belt, drowned. The cause of the crash is under investigation, Burns said.

"Mike is one of the few entomologists with the experience to go out and save lives today."

~ Robert A. Wirtz, chief of entomology at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 

 

November 22, 2003: Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45

--Expertise: He was studying the virus that was plaguing cruise ships until he was killed by a mysterious white van in November of 2003

--Circumstance of Death: Burghoff was walking on a sidewalk along the 1600 block of South Braeswood when a white van jumped the curb and hit him at 1:35 p.m. Thursday, police said. The van then sped away. Burghoff died an hour later at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

 

 

December 18, 2003: Robert Aranosia, 61

--Expertise: Oakland County deputy medical examiner

--Circumstance of Death: He was driving south on I-75 when his pickup truck went off the freeway near a bridge over the Kawkawlin River. The vehicle rolled over several times before landing in the median. Aranosia was thrown from the vehicle and ended up on the shoulder of the northbound lanes.

 

 

January 6, 2004: Dr Richard Stevens, 54

--Expertise: A haematologist. (Haematologists analyse the cellular composition of blood and blood producing tissues eg bone marrow)

--Circumstance of Death: Disappeared after arriving for work on 21 July, 2003. A doctor whose disappearance sparked a national manhunt, killed himself because he could not cope with the stress of a secret affair, a coroner has ruled.

 

 

January 23 2004: Dr. Robert E. Shope, 74

--Expertise: An expert on viruses who was the principal author of a highly publicized 1992 report by the National Academy of Sciences warning of the possible emergence of new and unsettling infectious illnesses. Dr. Shope had accumulated his own collection of virus samples gathered from all over the world.

--Circumstance of Death: The cause was complications of a lung transplant he received in December, said his daughter Deborah Shope of Galveston. Dr. Shope had pulmonary fibrosis, a disease of unknown origin that scars the lungs.

 

 

January 24 2004: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley, 62

--Expertise: Ebola, Mad Cow Expert, top of the line world class.

--Circumstance of Death: Died of massive heart attack. Coincidently, both Dr. Shope and Dr. Kiley were working on the lab upgrade to BSL 4 at the UTMB Galvaston lab for Homeland Security. The lab would have to be secure to house some of the deadliest pathogens of tropical and emerging infectious disease as well as bioweaponized ones.

 

 

March 13, 2004: Vadake Srinivasan

--Expertise: Microbiologist.

--Circumstance of Death: crashed car into guard rail and ruled a stroke.

 

 

April 12, 2004: Ilsley Ingram, 84

--Expertise: Director of the Supraregional Haemophilia Reference Centre and the Supraregional Centre for the Diagnosis of Bleeding Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London.

--Circumstance of Death: unknown

 

 

May 5, 2004: William T. McGuire, 39

--Expertise: NJ University Professor and Senior programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

--Circumstance of Death: Body found in 3 Suitcases floating in Chesapeake Bay.

 

 

May 14, 2004: Dr. Eugene F. Mallove, 56

--Expertise: Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion. He had just published an open letter outlining the results of and reasons for his last 15 years in the field of new energy research. Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would actually see a free energy device.

--Circumstance of Death: Died after being beaten to death during an alleged robbery.

 

 

May 25, 2004: Antonina Presnyakova

--Expertise: Former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia --Circumstance of Death: Died after accidentally sticking herself with a needle laced with Ebola.

 

 

July 21, 2004: Dr. John Badwey 54

--Expertise: Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge. Biochemist at Harvard Medical School specializing in infectious diseases.

--Circumstance of Death: Suddenly developed pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks.

 

 

June 22, 2004: Thomas Gold, 84

--Expertise: He was the founder, and for twenty years the director, of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, where he was a close colleague of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan. Gold was famous for his provocative, controversial, and sometimes outrageous theories. Gold's theory of the deep hot biosphere holds important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. Gold sparked controversy in 1955 when he suggested that the Moon's surface is covered with a fine rock powder.

--Circumstance of Death: Died of heart failure.

 

 

June 24, 2004: Dr. Assefa Tulu, 45

--Expertise: Dr. Tulu joined the health department in 1997 and served for five years as the county's lone epidemiologist. He was charged with tracking the health of the county, including the spread of diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS and measles. He also designed a system for detecting a bioterrorism attack involving viruses or bacterial agents. Tulu often coordinated efforts to address major health concerns in Dallas County, such as the West Nile virus outbreaks of the past few years, and worked with the media to inform the public.

--Circumstance of Death: Dallas County's chief epidemiologist, was found at his desk, died of a stroke.

 

 

June 27, 2004: Dr Paul Norman, Of Salisbury, Wiltshire, 52

--Expertise: He was the chief scientist for chemical and biological defence at the Ministry of Defence's laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire. He travelled the world lecturing on the subject of weapons of mass destruction.

--Circumstance of Death: Died when the Cessna 206 crashed shortly after taking off from Dunkeswell Airfield on Sunday. A father and daughter also died at the scene, and 44-year-old parachute instructor and Royal Marine Major Mike Wills later died in the hospital.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3860995.stm

 

 

June 29, 2004: John Mullen, 67

--Expertise: A nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas.

--Circumstance of Death: Died from a huge dose of poisonous arsenic.

 

 

July 1, 2004: Edward Hoffman, 62

--Expertise: Aside from his role as a professor, Hoffman held leadership positions within the UCLA medical community. Worked to develop the first human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis.

--Circumstance of Death: unknown

 

 

July 2, 2004: Larry Bustard, 53

--Expertise: A Sandia scientist who helped develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings and media sites during the anthrax scare in 2001. Worked at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. His team came up with a new technology used against biological and chemical agents.

--Circumstance of Death: unknown

 

 

July 6, 2004: Stephen Tabet, 42

--Expertise: An associate professor and epidemiologist at the University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network.

--Circumstance of Death: Died of an unknown illness

 

 

July 21, 2004: Dr Bassem al-Mudares

--Expertise: He was a phD chemist

--Circumstance of Death: His mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq and had been tortured before being killed.

 

 

August 12, 2004: Professor John Clark

--Expertise: Head of the science lab which created Dolly the sheep. Prof Clark led the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world's leading animal biotechnology research centres. He played a crucial role in creating the transgenic sheep that earned the institute worldwide fame.

--Circumstance of Death: He was found hanging in his holiday home.