Harold Amos

(1919-2003)

Biologist, Microbiologist, Educator

Harold Amos

Harold Amos was the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the Harvard Medical School, where he joined the faculty as an instructor in 1954 and became the first African American department chairman in 1968. His primary research area, hexose metabolism in mammalian cells, is essential to the understanding and treatment of diseases such as diabetes and some forms of immune deficiency. Dr. Amos was a Fulbright Scholar at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1951 and received the Dr. Charles Drew World Medical Prize in 1989. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1991 was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Amos was awarded the Public Welfare medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and an honorary degree by Harvard University in 1996. A renowned teacher and mentor, Dr. Amos served on the boards of several organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he worked to expand the participation of minorities in medicine and science.

Links to Additional Information

Obituary from NY Times, March 6, 2003

The Amos Minority Medical Faculty Development Program (MMFDP)