 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Myron 'Max' Essex | |
|---|---|
 Max Essex in Botswana, July 2007 | |
| Born | Myron Elmer Essex (1937-08-17)17 August 1937 (age 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Myron Essex, Max Essex |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | Doctorate of veterinary medicine,Michigan State University,East Lansing, Michigan, 1967; Ph.D.,University of California, Davis, 1970. |
| Alma mater | Michigan State University (DVM, 1967),University of California, Davis (1970, PhD) |
| Occupation(s) | Virologist, veterinarian, professor of immunology and public health |
| Years active | ? to present |
| Employer | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health |
| Known for | showed that a retrovirus caused immune suppression; scientific research relating to transmission of retroviruses and their links to certain diseases in both animals and human beings.
|
| Spouse | Dr. Elizabeth Essex |
| Children | 2 adult daughters; 5 grandchildren |
| Awards |
|
Myron Elmer "Max" Essex (born August 17, 1939) is theMary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, emeritus in the department of immunology and infectious diseases atHarvard University,[1] chair of theHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HAI) in the department of immunology and infectious diseases,[2] and chair of the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute inGaborone,Botswana. Essex was one of the first to link animal and humanretroviruses toimmunosuppressive disease, to suspect that a retrovirus was the cause ofAIDS, and to determine thatHIV could be transmitted through blood and blood products tohemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions. With collaborators, Essex also provided the first evidence that HIV could be transmitted byheterosexual intercourse.
In 1984, Essex identifiedgp120, the virus surface protein that is used worldwide for blood screening, HIV detection, and epidemiological monitoring. With collaborators, including African microbiologistSouleymane Mboup, he discovered the firstsimian immunodeficiency virus, as well asHIV-2. Since 1986, he has developed programs for AIDS collaboration inSenegal,Thailand,Botswana,India,Mexico, andChina. In 1996, Essex helped establish the Botswana–Harvard Partnership for HIV Research and Education (now the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute). This is a collaboration between the Ministry of Health in Botswana and HAI.
Essex was born inCoventry, Rhode Island in 1939.[3] Essex earned hisDVM fromMichigan State University in 1967. He earned his Ph.D. fromUniversity of California, Davis, in 1970.
He has been married to Elizabeth Essex since 1967. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.[4]
Essex holds tenhonorary doctorates[4] and 15 patents and has received theLasker Award,[5] the highest medical research award given in the United States, jointly withRobert Gallo andLuc Montagnier in 1986. He has published over 500 papers and 12 books, including two editions ofAIDS in Africa (ISBN 0306466996), and his latest,Saturday Is for Funerals (ISBN 0674050770). Essex has worked in twelve (12) different nations as aveterinarian andvirologist: Botswana, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Nigeria, Senegal, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, U.S., Zaire.[4]
His 45 years of working papers, the Myron Essex papers, 1949–1996, are archived in the Countway Library's Center for the History of Medicine through funding by a Hidden Collections grant from theHarvard University Library (HUL) within the Maximizing Microbiology: Molecular Genetics, Cancer, and Virology, 1936-2000 project. In addition to the Myron Essex papers (1949–1996), the project has already led to the processing of collections of several other microbiologists, including those of Bernard D. Davis, Arthur B. Pardee, Francesc Duran i Reynals, and Luigi Gorini. Essex serves on the Library's Archives Committee.[6] In 2018 Dr. Essex announced his retirement plans.[4]
He has been the primary mentor to eighty (80) postdocs and to 34 doctoral students. He has authored 629 research papers, forty (40) of which have been published inScience orNature.[4]
