Elvio Sadun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elvio Sadun | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 9, 1918 Livorno, Italy |
| Died | April 23, 1974 (aged 55) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Known for | Schistosomiasis, malaria[1] |
| Children | Alfredo Sadun, Alberto Sadun, Lorenzo Sadun |
| Awards | Henry Baldwin Ward Medal in 1961 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Tropical medicine |
Elvio Herbert Sadun (December 9, 1918 – April 23, 1974) was an Italian-American parasitologist. Educated at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University (ScD, zoology), he conducted most of his research as Chief of Medical Zoology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (1959–1973).[1] A prolific scientist, he wrote or edited 3 books and 313 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of immunology and tropical medicine, and is known for the first application of fluorescent antibody imaging in the diagnosis of parasitic diseases.[2]
Sadun was born in Livorno, Italy to a prominent Jewish family. As a Jew, Sadun escaped from Italy and immigrated to the U.S. in 1939 where he began graduate work in zoology at Harvard University. The outbreak of World War II brought him back to Italy with the US Army, and he became director of the Italian Radio Network under Allied Command, which would later become part of the Armed Forces Network. This was a means for him to stay in constant communication with the Italian partisans and allowed him to communicate secret instructions for the surrender of the Italian Navy in Malta.[3] He accomplished this as a sergeant in the Army at the time of the surrender.
After the war, Sadun returned to Johns Hopkins and became a parasitologist. He married Lina Ottolenghi, another Italian Jewish refugee, in 1949. They had three children, Alfredo, Alberto, and Lorenzo, all of whom became university academics. In 1974, shortly after founding the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases in Nairobi, he died from liver cancer in Washington, D.C. The Elvio Sadun Library at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi is named in his honour.
