Thomas Milton Rivers

Infobox Scientist
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caption = Thomas M. Rivers' bust in the Polio Hall of Fame
birth_date = September 3, 1888
birth_place = Jonesboro, Georgia
death_date = death date and age|1962|5|12|1888|9|3
death_place = Forest Hills, New York
residence = Forest Hills, New York
citizenship =
nationality = American
ethnicity =
field = virology
work_institutions = Rockefeller Institute
alma_mater = Johns Hopkins University
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known_for = discovery of the parainfluenza virus
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Thomas Milton Rivers (September 3, 1888 – May 12, 1962) was an American bacteriologist and virologist. The "father of modern virology." [ Oshinsky p. 18]

Life

Born in Jonesboro, Georgia, he graduated from Emory College in 1909 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Immediately following graduation, Rivers was admitted to the Johns Hopkins Medical School. His plans of becoming a physician could not be realized at first as he was diagnosed with a neuromuscular degeneration which forced him to leave medical school and work as a laboratory assistant at a hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. When by 1912 the illness had not become worse he returned to Johns Hopkins and graduated in 1915.He stayed at Johns Hopkins until 1919.

In March 1922 he headed the infectious disease ward at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and became the institute's director in June 1937. After retiring in 1956 , he remained active with the Rockefeller Foundation. His work in the 1930s and 1940s contributed to making the institute a leader in viral research. In 1934 Rivers was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in section 10 (pathology and microbiology). [ [http://www.pnas.org Archives of NAS] ] As chairman of committees on research and vaccine advisory for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, he oversaw the clinical trials of Jonas Salk's vaccine. He served in the armed forces medical corps during both World Wars. During the Second World War, Rivers led the Naval Medical Research Unit in the South Pacific, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. In 1948 Rivers edited a standard book on viral and Rickettsial infections [THOMAS M. RIVERS, Editor: "Viral and Rickettsial Infections of Man", J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia,1949. ]

In 1958 he was inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame at Warm Springs, Georgia (see photo).

Rivers was married to Teresa Jacobina Riefle of Baltimore.Rivers died at Forest Hills, New York in 1962 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on account if his military rank. [ [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Rivers&GSfn=Thomas&GSmn=Milton&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSst=48&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=20788386& Findagrave] ]

Further Reading

* Saul Benison: "Tom Rivers - Reflections on a Life in Medicine and Science", Cambridge, Mass., 1967
*David Oshinsky: "Polio: An American Story". Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 0195152948.
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Horsfall
first=F L
authorlink=
year=1965
month=
title=Thomas Milton Rivers, September 3, 1888-May 12, 1962
journal=Biographical memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
volume=38
issue=
pages=263–94
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pmid = 11615452
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=SHOPE
first=R E
authorlink=
year=1962
month=Sep
title=Thomas Milton RIVERS, 1888-1962
journal=J. Bacteriol.
volume=84
issue=
pages=385–8
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 13988655
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

External Links

* [http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/r/rivers.htm Thomas M. Rivers Papers, American Philosophical Society ]

References