Spouse(s) Carrolee Desowitz Name Robert Desowitz | Role Author | |
 | ||
Full Name Robert S. Desowitz Born January 2, 1926 New York Occupation researcher of tropical medicine, parasites, and malaria, and author Children Duba Desowitz-Leibell, Gregory Desowitz Died March 24, 2008, Pinehurst, North Carolina, United States Books New Guinea tapeworm, The malaria capers, Who gave pinta to the Santa Ma, Federal Bodysnatchers and the N, The Thorn in the Starfish | ||
Robert S. Desowitz, PhD (January 2, 1926 in New York - March 24, 2008 in Pinehurst, North Carolina), was a researcher of tropical medicine, parasites, and malaria, and an author.
Life and career
Desowitz was born in New York where he attended Niagara Falls High School. He served in the United States Army from 1944-1946. He received a bachelor's degree from the University at Buffalo in 1948. He earned a double doctorate in parasitology and medical biology from the University of London in 1951.
From 1951-1960, he worked for West African Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research in Vom, Nigeria. In 1960, he joined the University of Malaya in Singapore which became the University of Singapore on 1 January 1962] as Professor of Parasitology, where he worked until 1965. He then worked as Chief of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Laboratory's Department of Parasitology in Bangkok from 1965-1968. While working there, he spent time doing research in Papua New Guinea.
Desowitz worked from 1968-1995 as a professor in public health, tropical medicine, and microbiology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. During his tenure there, he spent time researching malaria in Kenya.
Upon retirement as professor emeritus from the University of Hawaii, Desowitz worked as adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health.