Alexander Duncan Langmuir (12 September 1910 – 22 November 1993) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 epidemiologist

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

. He is renowned for creating the Epidemic Intelligence Service

Epidemic Intelligence Service

The Epidemic Intelligence Service is a program of the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Established in 1951, due to biological warfare concerns arising from the Korean War, it has become a hands-on two-year postgraduate training program in epidemiology, with a focus on...

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Biography

Alexander D. Langmuir was born in Santa Monica, California. He received his A.B. in 1931 from Harvard, his M.D. in 1935 from Cornell University Medical College, and his M.P.H. in 1940 from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. After serving as a public health officer in New York and as an epidemiologist with the U. S. Army from 1942 to 1946, Langmuir returned to Johns Hopkins to become associate professor of epidemiology in the school of medicine. In 1949, he became director of the epidemiology branch of the National Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, a position he held for over 20 years. He wrote extensively on all phases of epidemiology on a global basis and was recognized internationally as a leading contributor in epidemiology. Langmuir was a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1988 until his death in 1993.

External links

• The Alexander D. Langmuir Collection Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
• The Alexander D. Langmuir papers can be found at The Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.