In Memoriam: Professor Leon Gordis
Visiting Professor and Long-time Mentor at TAU School of Public Health
The students and faculty at TAU School of Public Health are honored and privileged to have had Professor Leon Gordis as a brilliant teacher and mentor for most of the last decade. He was devotedly involved in the School's activities and helped establish the Summer Institute of Advanced Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. In June 2015, Prof. Gordis was presented with the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Epidemiology Teaching and Global Public Health by the Schools of Public Health in Israel and the Israeli Public Health Physicians Association at their Annual Conference (Health Knows No Borders, 2015). Prof. Leon Gordis was a man of noble character, enormous modesty, and immense warmth.
Image: Will Kirk/homewoodphoto.jhu.edu
The following text is an excerpt from Celentano, David D., and Moyses Szklo. In Memoriam: Leon Gordis, MD, DrPH. Am. J. Epidemiol. 182.10 (2015): 823-25.
Dr. Gordis had a long-term involvement in public health activities in Israel. He was a visiting professor of epidemiology at Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva in 1980, 1984, and 1986, and visiting professor at Tel-Aviv University School of Medicine and School of Public Health from 2007 until his death. On June 1, 2015, the Schools of Public Health of Israel and the Israeli Public Health Physicians Association honored Dr. Gordis for his lifelong contributions to epidemiologic teaching and global public health. The theme of the joint annual conference was “Health Knows No Borders.” Daniel Cohen, the head of the scientific committee of the conference, paraphrased that Leon’s book Epidemiology and his teaching knew no borders.
Click here for the full article "In Memoriam: Leon Gordis, MD, DrPH" published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The following text was retrieved from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website.
Those who had the privilege of knowing Leon Gordis—his family, friends, colleagues and students—would agree that he was passionately committed to epidemiology.
He was the son of Fannie and Robert Gordis, a prominent Conservative rabbi, author and biblical scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Leon received undergraduate degrees from both Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary and then his medical degree from SUNY Downstate. He completed his pediatrics training at Hopkins and Sinai Hospital while also a member of the U.S. Public Health Service. Leon earned his MPH (’66) and DrPH (’68) from Hopkins, with Abraham Lilienfeld, prominent pioneer of public health, as his advisor.
He joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (as it was then known) in 1971, teaching epidemiology. He then became chair of the Department of Epidemiology in 1975, a position he held until 1993.
During his tenure at Hopkins, Leon designed and taught courses at both the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine, where he became Associate Dean for Admissions and Academic Affairs. He also authored Epidemiology, now in its fifth edition, and considered by many as the seminal textbook on epidemiologic principles and clinical practice applications. PowerPoint slides taken directly from the book have been translated for public health students around the world—a tribute to his impact on the field.
He established a cardiovascular fellowship program in 1980 with an institutional grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. More recently, Leon was named a visiting professor at Tel-Aviv University School of Medicine and School of Public Health in 2007. The Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, which has enriched the schools of public health, medicine and nursing, is in no small part a culmination of Leon’s vision and commitment to collaboration.
His curriculum vitae encapsulated more than a half century of research and scholarship. Leon was a member of numerous professional organizations, served on several boards and committees, and published more than 100 papers in scholarly journals. But teaching gave him the most gratification. His lectures were models of clarity and communication, infused with humor. Leon was always incredibly welcoming and supportive of students. Dr. Moyses Szklo, fellow professor in the Department of Epidemiology, summed it up best: “He was a dear friend and mentor, and one of the best teachers the School ever had.”
Retrieved from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website.
