Bernard Roizman, Herpes Research Pioneer, Dies at 96
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Bernard Roizman, Herpes Research Pioneer, Dies at 96
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Summary
April 13 marked the death of Bernard Roizman in a Chicago hospital at 96, ending a seven-decade career that made him one of the world’s leading herpes virologists.
Fifty-two of those years were spent at the University of Chicago, where his work on herpes simplex virus helped explain the pathogen behind cold sores, genital infections and rare encephalitis cases.
Peter Palese of Mount Sinai said Roizman’s studies “largely defined the field,” calling him “the herpes virus person par excellence.”
Roizman arrived in New York from Eastern Europe in 1947 after surviving wartime upheaval, then discovered microbiology at Temple University and built a scientific career he later described as his “second love at first sight.”