Arthur Lessac, American voice trainer, died he was , 101

Arthur Lessac was the creator of Lessac Kinesensic Training for the voice and body  died he was , 101. Lessac’s voice text teaches the “feeling process” for discovering vocal sensation in the body for developing tonal clarity, articulation, and for better connecting to text and the rhythms of speech.

(September 9, 1909 – April 7, 2011)

Development of ideas

He first studied voice as a student on scholarship at the Eastman School of Music where he graduated in 1936. Lessac’s big break into the professional performance scene occurred with Pins and Needles in 1937, a production written and performed by members in the cultural program of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). Lessac taught his ideas of feeling sensation to the amateur performers and helped them develop their voices and bodies. Lessac’s next Broadway job came in 1939 with a group of European refugees needing accent elimination for their show From Vienna. Lessac taught the cast how to feel and enjoy the sensations of the consonants. When the show opened, famed critic Brooks Atkinson wrote the cast spoke better English than those for whom English is their native language.
Lessac pursued his interest in health and wellness with voice and movement and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Voice-Speech Clinical Therapy from New York University in 1941. Four years later he founded the National Academy of Vocal Arts (NAVA) and taught there until 1950. He further developed the feeling process of voice and movement studies with his 21 teachers.In 1951 he continued discovering the benefits of his work when he taught voice in the Stella Adler Theatre Studio for one year, furthering his explorations of voice and movement for actors. In the same year Lessac began his 20 year tenure with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Lessac was in charge of teaching the students seeking ordination how to deliver sermons with good speech, voice and enthusiasm. Instead of simply reading the sermons from the weekly scrolls, Lessac taught them how to commune with the text and inspire their audiences through their vocal delivery.
Several important events happened during his time with the Jewish Theological Seminary. First, Lessac earned a Master of Arts degree in Voice-Speech Clinical Therapy from New York University in 1953 and worked with speech therapy patients at Bellevue Hospital throughout the 1950s. Lessac continued his studies in neurology and anatomy as he helped patients regain sensation in their faces and mouths through vocal explorations. Lessac helped patients with a myriad of afflictions ranging from stuttering to gaining mobility in parts of the face lacking nerve action due to Bell’s Palsy. Lessac's work on employing the spirit toward the benefit of a healthy voice developed. By focusing on what a patient could do (and not focusing on disability or lack), patients became empowered in their abilities, engaged their spirits in therapy. Moreover, Lessac’s work reiterated the importance of allowing the pleasure of feeling vocal vibration or body’s energy guide one towards optimal expression and wellness.

Professional development

Lessac’s work with actors changed with the publication of his book in 1960. Famed directors Elia Kazan and Robert Whitehead appointed Lessac as teacher of voice, speech, singing and dialects for their historic repertory company at the Lincoln Center in 1962. Here Lessac worked with two of the top teachers in acting and dance, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow. Although the company only lasted one season, working with the most respected theatre professionals at the time reveals how much of an impact his work made on the theatre community.
In the summer of 1969, the theatre program at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton hired Lessac as full professor with immediate tenure with the mandate to develop the undergraduate and MFA acting program. The summer after his first year, he began teaching intensive workshops over 8 weeks that included all the tenets of his voice and body work. The intensives continue today each summer over 4 weeks and are taught by his master teachers of the work. Lessac left SUNY in 1981 as Professor Emeritus, but continued teaching in training programs all over the United States, Puerto Rico, Germany, Yugoslavia, South Africa, and Mexico. Lessac’s teachers and disciples felt the urgency of maintaining the pedagogical practices of the work plus the desire to expand kinesensic research into new terrain. They founded the Lessac Insitute in 1998 and developed an examination for teaching certification in 2000. The Lessac Institute now has dozens of certified trainers in sixteen states as well as trainers in South Africa, Germany, Belgium, and England. In addition, there are dozens of practitioners on track for certification.

Software

Lessac's work is the basis for a new software for text-to-speech technology being developed by Lessac Technologies, Inc. (LTI) of West Newton, Massachusetts.

Books

• Lessac, Arthur (1967). The use and training of the human voice; a practical approach to speech and voice dynamics. (2d ed. ed.). New York: DBS Publications. pp. xviii, 297 p. illus. 26 cm. OCLC 245027. LCCN 67-028352.
• Lessac, Arthur (1997). The use and training of the human voice : a bio-dynamic approach to vocal life (3rd ed. ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub.. pp. xv, 291 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.. ISBN 1559346965. LCCN 96-018629.
• Lessac, Arthur (1981, c1978). Body wisdom : the use and training of the human body (1st ed. ed.). New York, N.Y.: Drama Book Specialists. pp. vii, 278 p. : ill. ; 27 cm.. ISBN 0896760707. OCLC 7671791. LCCN 81-005472.

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Igor Birman, Russian-born American writer and economist died he was , 85.

Igor Yakovlevich Birman  was a Russian-American economist died he was , 85.. Received his Ph.D. in 1960. Authored a number of books translated into four languages and some 200 articles in professional periodicals and also in the popular press (Izvestia, Literaturnaia gazeta, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post).

(July 25, 1928 – April 6, 2011)

Biography

Birman was born in Moscow in 1928, graduated from the Statistical Institute in 1949, Ph. D. in Economics (кандидат экономических наук) - 1960. Was Director of Planning in three factories, worked in scientific institutes. Member of the Commission on the economic reform (1965).
In 1974 emigrated to the United States, where was employed chiefly as a consultant on the Soviet economy for The Pentagon and taught at two universities. He disproved all basic estimates of the Soviet economy by the CIA and other Sovietologists, particularly, the size of the economy, comparative level of living, share and size of military expenditures, deficit of the state budget, etc. (see NYT, 13.10.91, Newsweek, 3.03.09). Together with Valery Chalidze he edited the magazine «Russia».
Birman is best known for having criticized U.S. economists specializing in the Soviet Union (sovietologists) and CIA analysts for overestimating the size of the Soviet economy. On October 27, 1980, Birman published a piece in the Washington Post stating that the CIAʼs current picture of the Soviet economy was far too optimistic. "The Soviet economy was in a state of 'crisis,' Birman declared, while Russian living standards were 'a fourth or even a fifth the American level.' …Outside critics had often attacked the CIAʼs operational side but never its analysis, and certainly not from the political Right. …… In 1986, the CIAʼs analysts insisted that the Soviet economy was about to expand… Three years later, the Soviet Union collapsed." [Herman, A. (2009). The 35-Year War on the CIA. Commentary, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-35-year-war-on-the-cia/].
At the crux of the issue is how U.S. specialists estimated the size of the Soviet economy and the amount of resources it devoted to military expenditures. Up until 1975 the CIA estimated that the Soviet GDP was about 50% of that of the U.S., and that Soviets spend about 6% of the GDP, same as the U.S., on military expenditures. However, Birman argued that the size of the Soviet economy was more like 1/5 of U.S. economy; and to keep up with U.S. military expenditures, Soviets had to invest such a large percentage of their GNP (as much as 30%) that if such spending were sustained Soviet economy would collapse. He criticized American economists for misunderstanding Soviet life, and the power wielded by the Soviet leaders to devote such resources to the military.
"At the base … lies a lack of understanding of a simple fact – the share of Soviet GNP allocated for military purposes is extraordinarily high. For Western observer… it is almost impossible to imagine what the Soviet rulers set aside for war preparations. Precisely this enabled them to have tremendous military strength with a weak economy. This misunderstanding, the root of which is transferring Western impressions to Soviet reality, is the basis of [overestimating]; CIA economists believing in a modest share of military expenditures unavoidably had to believe also in the very big overall size of the Soviet economy." [Norquist, W. (2002). How the United States used competition to win the cold war. Advances in Competitiveness Research, 10 (1): http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6482/is_1_10/ai_n28930700/]
As a result of such massive investment of their economy in the military, Birman expected that the Soviet economy would collapse, and with it the Soviet Union, as in this 1981 article:
"A great specialist on Soviet history [Richard Pipes] wrote to me recently that, while agreeing with my economic analysis, he 'simply cannot think of a case of a country collapsing politically because of a slowdown in the rate of economic growth.’ I admire him very much, but allow myself to ask – why not? Indeed, the Soviet case is not just some slowdown. The core of my analysis is that the slowdown will continue and the economy will experience negative growth… Once again-as an economist I risk drawing only economic conclusions. But historians and political scientists should address the most urgent question-what can happen to the Soviet regime under negative economic growth?" [Birman, I. (1981); cited in Wilhelm (2003) http://www.jstor.org/pss/826523]
With the opening up of the Soviet Union and its records, Birman’s assertions were supported by Soviet economists themselves, as in these 1990 reports:
"Several senior Soviet economists said here today that the United States had consistently overestimated the size of the Soviet economy and understated Soviet military spending……American officials said the data offered by the Soviet economists helped explain why the burden of military spending was becoming unbearable for the Soviets and why Moscow had been willing to make concessions in recent arms control talks." [Pear, P. (1990, April 24). Evolution in Europe; Soviet Experts Say Their Economy Is Worse Than U.S. Has Estimated. Special to The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/24/world/evolution-europe-soviet-experts-say-their-economy-worse-than-us-has-estimated.html?src=pm]
"Rather than disputing the iconoclastic Mr. Birman's findings, Yuri Dikhanov of the Soviet Academy of Sciences has gone to heroic technical efforts to confirm them. In a tortuous extrapolation using the Hungarian economy as a benchmark, he estimates that Soviet consumption per person averaged just 20 percent that of Americans' in 1985."[Passell, P. (1990; April 25). Economic Scene; Soviet Economy: Red Storm Ebbs New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30612F7355E0C768EDDAD0894D8494D81&scp=5&sq=igor%20birman&st=cse]
American academics were skeptical of his assertions, and his work was not published in the major journals:
"With the information now coming of the Soviet Union, [Birman’s] evaluation of Soviet economic conditions surely looks increasingly plausible. Yet, with the exception of some British journals, Birman seems to have encountered substantial resistance to the dissemination and discussion of his views…. To my knowledge his statement, made in 1986, that he has not managed to express his views in the American sovietological literature remains largely true…. Despite his fundamental disagreements with the sovietological community, it seemed impossible for him to engage those with whom he disagreed in scholarly discussions and ..his writings were rarely referred to in the literature."[Wilhelm, J. H. (1990). Crisis and Collapse: What Are the Issues? Soviet Studies, 42 (2): 317-327 http://www.jstor.org/stable/152083]

Birman was criticized for not relying on Western economic theory in conducting his analyses of Soviet economy: 

"I … deviate from the mainstream of economics, largely because of my disagreement with the view that economic theories are universal and hence applicable to any (type of) economy. ……. In my immodest opinion, the attempt to formulate a 'scientifically correct' course for the economies in transition was doomed from the start precisely because the course prescribed certain 'universal recipes' for all of them." [Birman, I. 1996, Gloomy Prospects for the Russian Economy. Europe-Asia Studies, 48 (5) 735-750. http://www.jstor.org/pss/152995]
And he did not trust mathematical models:
".. there are many things in economics which cannot be expressed in numbers, that numbers are always deceiving. …. I am not saying that economic figures always and everywhere are useless. Quite the contrary, I have spent my life struggling to pin down numbers. But I do not trust numbers themselves: I check numbers with facts, with logic, with other numbers. We should not pray to numbers as to icons." [Birman, I. (1980). Limits of Economic Measurements. Slavic Review, 39 (4): pp. 603-607. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496500]
Instead, he advocated for including data from what he called “anecdotal economics,” relying in part on his visceral understanding of the Soviet Union, lived experience, and intuition that could not be quantified or modeled:
"before taking seriously the results of calculations with models, we should first look at the data used. Unfortunately models are often much better than data. On the other hand, ideas and assertions should not be dismissed because they are not supported by models. Having lived in that country for 45 years, and having studied its economy from outside for another 11, I trust my intuition no less than models. I am not saying that all models are bad, or should not be used, but I suggest that reasoning, simple logic, and the like, which are called anecdotal economics must not be dismissed." [Birman, I. (1986). The Soviet Economy: Alternative Views, Russia, 12, p. 65.; cited in Wilhelm, 2003]
In the end, his predictions turned out to be correct:
"Given what has happened and what we now know, Birman clearly did get it right. ….. some of the most 'advanced' techniques were used in studies of the Soviet economy….. But these techniques clearly did not perform as well as Birman's 'anecdotal economics' in getting the Soviet economic situation right. …..Yet if the process of scholarship is to avoid being a self-perpetuating and closed system of review and citation, which.. Birman encountered, there has to be a better arbiter than the refereed, scholarly journal. I would call it the reality test." [Wilhelm, J. H. (2003). The Failure of the American Sovietological Economics Profession. Europe-Asia Studies, 55(1), 59-74. http://www.jstor.org/pss/826523]

Books by Igor Birman

• Транспортная задача линейного программирования. М.: Экономиздат, 1959
• Оптимальное программирование, М.: Экономика, 1968 / нем. издание: Lineare Optimierung in der Okonomie. Berlin: Verlag Die Wirtschaft, 1971
• Методология оптимального планирования. М.: Мысль, 1971 /in Czech. Прага: 1974/
• Secret Incomes of the Soviet State Budget. The Hague ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. ISBN 902472550X; 0908094086; 0908094000 (bibliography pp. 270–272)
• Экономика недостач. Нью-Йорк: Chalidze publications, 1983.
• To Build Anew (рус.: Строить заново). Benson, Vermont : Chalidze Publ., 1988 (Russian)
• Personal Consumption in the USSR and USA. N.Y. : St. Martin Press, 1989. ISBN 0312023928 (Библиография: стр.191-251)
• Productivity of the Soviet Economy Before Perestroika. Dump Eurospan, 1991. ISBN 0844737453
• Величина советских военных расходов: методический аспект. Стокгольм: : Inst., 1991
• Реформа экономики абсурда: к собственной собственности. М.: Пик, 1991
• Я — экономист (о себе любимом). Новосибирск: Экор, 1966; (2-е издание - М.: Время, 2001).
• Уровень русской жизни (а также американской) (The level of Russian living and American as well).М.:Научный мир, 2004 (2-е изд. — М.: Экономика, 2007), ISBN 5891762773,
• Капиталистический манифест (Capitalist manifesto). M.: 2010

and co-authored and edited several books, for example:

• Notes on input-output analysis in the USSR. (в соавт. с Альбиной Третьяковой) Durham, N. C., 1975
• Статистика уровня жизни населения России (в соавторстве с Л.Пияшевой). М.:1997;
• Математические методы и проблемы размещения производства (Mathematical methods and problems of production territorial allocation). М.: Изд-во эконом. лит-ры, 1963;
• Оптимальный план отрасли (Optimal Plan of a Branch) M.: Ekonomizdat, 1970; etc.

Selected articles

• The imbalance of the Soviet economy. - In: Soviet studies, vol. 40, 1988, 2, p. 210-221. ISSN 0038-5859
• Birman, I. (1980; October 27). The Way to Slow the Arms Race. Washington Post, Op-Ed, P. A15
• Birman, I. (1980). Limits of Economic Measurements. Slavic Review, 39 (4): pp. 603-607. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496500
• Birman, I. (1986). The Soviet Economy: Alternative Views, Russia, 12
• Le problème de l'évaluation de l'effort militaire soviétique: 1988-1990. - In: Revue d'études comparatives est-ouest. 1991, 4, p. 5-20. Paris : CNRS, ISSN 0338-0599
• Gloomy Prospects for the Russian Economy. - In: Europe-Asia studies, 48, no. 5, 1996 ISSN 0966-8136
• Назад в социалистическую экономику? - В: Экономика и математические методы. 1998, № 3, стр. 157-164./ М.: Наука, ISSN 0424-7388
• Аномальное полузнайство.- В: Свободная мысль. М.: 1997 сентябрь
• Письмо в редакцию (по поводу статьи Тремля и Кудрова). - В: Вопросы статитики. М.: 1998, № 4.
• Уровень русской жизни (недопроизнесенный доклад). - В: Nota Bene, Иерусалим: 2006, № 13.
• Избытчность - норма нормальной экономики. - В: Экономическая наука современной России. М.; 2007, № 4.

Literature about Birman

• Louise Shelley. Igor Birman: Biography. N.Y. : American Jewish Committee, Oral History Library, 1980
• Wilhelm, J. H. (2003). The Failure of the American Sovietological Economics Profession. Europe-Asia Studies, 55(1), 59-74. http://www.jstor.org/pss/826523
• Wilhelm, J. H. (1990). Crisis and Collapse: What Are the Issues? Soviet Studies, 42 (2): 317-327 http://www.jstor.org/stable/152083 .
• Hopkins, M. & Kennedy, M. (1984). Comparisons and Implications of Alternative Views of the Soviet Economy. http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/2009/R3075.pdf
• Jones, M. (2009) Constructing Cassandra: The Social Construction of Strategic Surprise at Central Intelligence Agency, 1947 - 2001. https://catalogue.kent.ac.uk/Record/764718

Other Igor Birmans

Chief of Staff, Congressman Tom McClintock

 

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Sujatha, Indian actress died she was , 58.

Sujatha was a popular South Indian actress who has performed in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi language films, and was best known for restraint and subtlety in portrayal of varied emotions died she was , 58. Sujatha was introduced to the Tamil film industry by veteran director K. Balachander as a protagonist in Aval Oru Thodar Kathai (1974). She has acted with leading actors Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Shobhan Babu and Krishna. She paired with Kamal Haasan in most of her films.^[3]

(10 December 1952 – 6 April 2011)

Early life

Sujatha was born on 10 December 1952 in Galle, Srilanka where she spent her childhood. She would actively participate in school plays, and later moved to Kerala when she was about 14. She acted in Ernakulam Junction, a Malayalam film and soon drew the attention of K. Balachander.

Career

Sujatha has acted in over 300 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, with almost 200 in Tamil. She shot to fame instantly with her portrayal of the haughty, free-thinking urban working woman shouldering the family’s responsibilities. She was later paired with actors Sivaji Ganesan, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan and Vijaykumar. Despite displaying her acting prowess through fiery characters in films like Aval Oru Thodarkadhai and Vidhi, Sujatha was equally known for her performances in family dramas like Mayangugiraal Oru Maadhu, Sentamizh Paattu and Aval Varuvaala. She seldom resorted to glamorous roles and graduated to playing older women in the late 1980s.

 Delightful entry

Sujatha's entry into the industry was through a powerful role, at a time when hero-centric films were the norm, made many take notice. She made her debut in the Malayalam film Thapasvini. She had a dream debut in Tamil with Aval Oru Thodar Kathai directed by K. Balachander. She again colloborated with K. Balachander in the highly acclaimed Avargal (1977) along with Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. In the film, she played the wife of the former and the lover of the latter. Her portrayal of a married woman Anu, who is caught between the torture she is subjected to by her sadistic husband and the unforgettable memories of her past romance, is till date, considered one of the best performances by a female lead.

 Character roles

During the eighties she started playing character roles, often portraying mother roles. Her performances as a senior actor in films like Kodi Parakuthu, Uzhaippali, Baba, Villain and Varalaru in which she played Rajinikanth's mother, also saw her trademark restraint and dignity in performance. Vathiyar(2006) was her last film.^[4]

Awards and honours

• Kalaimamani award from the Government of Tamil Nadu
• Nandi Award for Pelli in 1998.

“

My father thought of her as a director's delight. She would understand what exactly the director wanted, internalise the character and perform accordingly

”

, says Pushpa Kandasamy, film producer and daughter of K. Balachander.

Death

She died of a cardiac arrest on 6 April 2011 after undergoing treatment for a heart ailment at her resiidence in Chennai. She is survived by husband Jayakar, son Sajith and daughter Divya.^[5]

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language
2006	Vathiyar	Arjun's mother	Tamil
2006	Varalaru (film)	Ajith Kumar's mother in law	Tamil
2006	Sri Ramadasu	Pokala Damakka	Telugu
2004	Attagasam	Ajith Kumar's mother	Tamil
2004	Arul	Arul's mother	Tamil
2004	Jalolsavam	Bhanumathi	Malayalam
2003	Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu	Raghavayya's wife	Telugu
2002	Baba	Baba's mother	Tamil
2002	Tappu Chesi Pappu Koodu		Telugu
2001	Villain	Head of disabled home	Tamil
1999	Sneham Kosam	Lakshmi	Telugu
1998	Paataali		Tamil
1998	Natpukaaga	Lakshmi	Tamil
1998	Aval Varuvala	Simran's mother-in-law	Tamil
1996	Poovarasan	Karthik's mother	Tamil
1996	Pelli		Telugu
1994	Amaithipadai	Sivakami	Tamil
1993	Uzhavan	Prabhu's mother	Tamil
1993	Senthamizh Paattu	Prabhu's mother	Tamil
1993	Uzhaippaali		Tamil
1992	Ahankari		Telugu
1992	Madhavaiah Gari Manavadu		Telugu
1992	Soori Gadu		Telugu
1991	Chanti	Mother of Chanti	Telugu
1990	Sutradhaarulu		Telugu
1989	Kodi Parakuthu	Rajini's mother	Tamil
1989	Maaveeran	Rajini's mother	Tamil
1985	Mangamma Sabatham	Kamal's mother	Tamil
1984	Agnigundam		Telugu
1984	Anubandham		Telugu
1984	Justice Chakravarthy		Telugu
1983	Thudikkum Karangal		Tamil
1983	Abhilasha		Telugu
1983	MLA Yedukondalu		Telugu
1982	Thyagi		Tamil
1982	Sitadevi		Telugu
1982	Thai Mookambhikai		Telugu
1981	Ek Hi Bhool		Hindi
1981	Kadal Meengal	Kamal's wife	Tamil
1981	Mahapurushudu	Lakshmi	Telugu
1980	Prema Tarangalu		Telugu
1980	Circus Ramudu		Telugu
1980	Anbukku Naan Adimai		Tamil
1980	Edantastulameda		Telugu
1979	Nool Veli		Tamil
1979	Poonthalir		Tamil
1979	Gorintaku	Swapna	Telugu debut
1979	Guppedu Manasu		Telugu
1977	Andaman Kathali		Tamil
1977	Avargal	Anu	Tamil
1977	Uyarndhavargal		Tamil
1976	Annakili	Annam	Tamil
1976	Lalitha		Tamil
1976	Udayam Kizhakkuthanne		Malayalam
1976	Idhaya Malar		Tamil
1976	Oru Oodhappu Kan Simittugiradhu		Tamil
1975	Mayangukiral Oru Maadhu		Tamil
1975	Vazhunthu Kattukiren		Tamil
1974	Aval Oru Thodar Kathai	Kavitha	Tamil
1971	Ernakulam Junction		Malayalam
1968	Thapasvini		Malayalam

 

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Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American doctor, Nobel laureate in medicine, died from a heart attack he was , 85.

Baruch Samuel "Barry" Blumberg , was an American doctor and co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Daniel Carleton Gajdusek), and the President of the American Philosophical Society from 2005 until his death  died from a heart attack he was , 85..
Blumberg received the Nobel Prize for "discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases." Blumberg identified the Hepatitis B virus, and later developed its diagnostic test and vaccine.

(July 28, 1925 – April 5, 2011)

Early life and education

Blumberg was born in Brooklyn, New York.^[4] He first attended the Orthodox Yeshivah of Flatbush for elementary school, where he learned to read and write in Hebrew and to study the Bible and Jewish texts in their original language. (That school also had among its students a contemporary of Blumberg, Eric Kandel, who is another recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine.) Blumberg then attended Far Rockaway High School in the early 1940s, a school that also produced fellow laureates Burton Richter and Richard Feynman.^[5] Blumberg served as a U.S. Navy deck officer during World War II.^[2] He then attended Union College in Schenectady, New York and graduated from there with honors in 1946.^[6]
Originally entering the graduate program in mathematics at Columbia University, Blumberg switched to medicine and enrolled at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he received his M.D. in 1951. He remained at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for the next four years, first as an intern and then as a resident. He then began graduate work in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford and earned his Ph.D there in 1957.

Scientific career

1999 press conference at which Blumberg was introduced as the first director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute

Throughout the 1950s, Blumberg traveled the world taking human blood samples and studying the inherited variations in human beings, focussing on why some people contracted diseases in similar environments that others did not. In 1964, while studying yellow jaundice, he discovered a surface antigen for hepatitus B in the blood of an Australian aborigine. Blumberg and his team were able to develop a screening test for the virus to prevent its spread in blood donations and developed a vaccine. Blumberg later freely distributed his vaccine patent in order to promote its fielding by drug companies. Deployment of the vaccine reduced the infection rate of Hepatitus B in children in China from 15% to 1% in 10 years.^[7]
Blumberg became a member of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia in 1964, and held the rank of University Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania starting in 1977. Concurrently, he was Master of Balliol College from 1989 to 1994. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.^[8] From 1999 to 2002, he was also director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.^[9][10][11]
In November 2004, Blumberg was named Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of United Therapeutics Corporation,^[12] a position he held until his death. As Chairman he convened three Conferences on Nanomedical and Telemedical Technology, ^[13] as well as guiding the biotechnology company into the development of a broad-spectrum anti-viral medicine.
Beginning in 2005, Blumberg also served as the President of the American Philosophical Society. He had been first elected to membership in the society in 1986.^[14]
In October of 2010 Blumberg participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program whereby middle and high school students of the Greater Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland area get to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize winning scientist over a brown bag lunch.^[15] Blumberg came to General George A. McCall Elementary on Sept. 29, 2010 as part of the program.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2002 he stated that "[Saving lives] is what drew me to medicine. There is, in Jewish thought, this idea that if you save a single life, you save the whole world".^[16]
In discussing the factors that influenced his life, Blumberg always gave credit to the mental discipline of the Jewish Talmud, and as often as possible he attended weekly Talmud discussion classes until his death. ^[17]

Death

Blumberg died on April 5, 2011,^[1] shortly after giving the keynote speech at the International Lunar Research Park Exploratory Workshop held at NASA Ames Research Center. ^[18] At the time of his death Blumberg was a Distinguished Scientist at the NASA Lunar Science Institute, located at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.^[19][20]
Jonathan Chernoff, the scientific director at the Fox Chase Cancer Center where Blumberg spent most of his working life said, "I think it’s fair to say that Barry prevented more cancer deaths than any person who’s ever lived."^[21] In reference to Blumberg's discovery of the Hepatitis B vaccine, former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said, "Our planet is an improved place as a result of Barry's few short days in residence."^[22]
His funeral was held on April 10, 2011 at Society Hill Synagogue, where he was a long time member. The eulogy was delivered by his son-in-law Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC. ^[23][24]

 

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