Harold S. Ginsberg, a microbiologist who contributed fundamental research findings to the fields of virology and infectious disease, died in Woods Hole, Massachusetts from pneumonia on February 2nd at the age of 85.
Ginsberg is perhaps best known for characterizing adenoviruses, work he began in the late 1950's at what is now Case Western Reserve University. He eventually described their structure, replication and their role in causing infections such as atypical pneumonia, pharyngitis and acute respiratory disease.
Ginsberg was born in Daytona Beach, Florida and received his undergraduate degree from Duke and his medical degree from Tulane University. After serving in the military, he became an associate professor at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University). Then in 1951, he began teaching at Western Reserve University. Nine years later, he went to chair the microbiology department at the University of Pennsylvania.
From 1973 to 1985, Ginsberg chaired Columbia University Medical School's ...
