Remembrance: Former colleagues praise Barry Bloom’s scientific achievements, global health contributions, and good humor
Barry Bloom, the former dean of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who died on March 18, was an inspiration to many, according to Marc Lipsitch and Yonatan Grad. The two scientists, longtime colleagues of Bloom’s, wrote a remembrance about him that appeared in STAT on March 30.
Lipsitch, a former professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard Chan School, joined the Stanford faculty in January 2026. Grad is a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard Chan School. They wrote about how Bloom, an immunologist, “took the unusual step for a laboratory scientist of immersing himself in global health, becoming a serial founder of and adviser to programs and institutes around the world, as well as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, where he remained on the faculty until his death, having just recently submitted his final immunology paper for publication.” Bloom, they said, “brought rigor, integrity, and humanity to science and public health, pushing both forward by force of example and personality.”
The co-authors called Bloom “a key architect of the modern field of immunology.” He made important discoveries regarding immune responses to mycobacteria, the genus that causes tuberculosis and Hansen’s disease (formerly known as leprosy). This focus led to his involvement in global health. He worked with organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and supported public health efforts at institutions in China, India, and Africa.
Bloom had been working on a memoir, which will be published soon as an e-book, according to Lipsitch and Grad. Reading a draft, they wrote, “it’s hard to fathom how he found the time, energy, and imagination to engage so widely in a range of activities to benefit science, global health, and those around him.”
They wrote about his often blunt but helpful criticism. “He would say with a huge smile, ‘Marc, it is amazing how little you understand immunology,’ and proceed to school me, but always with the goal of improving my work,” wrote Lipsitch.
Bloom always shared lessons from his experiences “through his good humor and wonderfully told anecdotes,” the co-authors recalled. In addition to his “landmark contributions to immunology, infectious diseases, and global health,” they wrote, he set an example for others “as a leader, a mentor, and a mensch.”
Read the STAT article: Remembering public health pioneer Barry Bloom: a scientist, a mentor, a mensch
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Remembering Barry Bloom (message about Barry Bloom from Harvard Chan School Dean Andrea Baccarelli)
