Dr. Jeremiah A. Barondess

Dear Columbia Mailman Community,

We are writing with the sad news that Jeremiah A. Barondess, MD, retired professor of epidemiology, passed away on October 30 at age 102. Dr. Barondess was a treasured member of the Epidemiology faculty at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health who made important contributions across the medical center, the City of New York, and the nation. He greatly contributed to our collective understanding of chronic disease and how to prevent it, as well as the synergistic power of public health and medicine when they work together.

Dr. Barondess joined the faculty in 2011 as professor of clinical epidemiology following a successful career as a clinician and leader in academic medicine. He was a prolific contributor, appearing as an author in the biomedical literature for some 75 years, and wrote on a range of topics from healthy aging to medical professionalism to firearm violence. Dr. Barondess organized the Deans’ signature public health speaker series on chronic disease prevention that brought the country’s leading thinkers to our School to present their work and meet with groups of faculty over lunch or dinner. Additionally, he served as a senior advisor for the School’s Obesity Prevention Initiative. He was also a member of the Columbia Nursing School’s Board of Visitors and Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Health Sciences Advisory Council.

After he retired in 2022, the Department of Epidemiology established an award in his honor, the Barondess Award in Impactful Epidemiology, given to graduating students who show unique promise in making transformational changes to people’s health.

Drafted into the Army during World War II, Dr. Barondess was stationed at the Regional Hospital at Fort Meade in Maryland before beginning his medical training at Johns Hopkins. In 1951, he was part of the first cohort of the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where, based at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he studied viral hepatitis, including efforts to develop a hepatitis vaccine. After completing his clinical training at New York Hospital/Cornell, he practiced as an internist and served on the faculty at Cornell Medical School. His service included appointment as Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine and the William T. Foley Distinguished Professorship in Clinical Medicine; he also served as an advisory board member. In 1990, he was named president of the New York Academy of Medicine, building the organization’s research enterprise and reorienting its programmatic activities to population health, with an emphasis on urban health.

Throughout his career, he wrote on a range of clinical matters in internal medicine, medical education, clinical ethics, and the health of urban populations. He served as president of the American College of Physicians, Alpha Omega Alpha, the American Osler Society, and the American Clinical and Climatological Association, as well as a trustee of Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, he served as a member of the board of advisors at the New York University College of Nursing, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received several awards, including four honorary degrees and election to Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Royal College of Physicians of London.

A 1991 profile article in The New York Times, published shortly after Mayor David Dinkins appointed him to head a committee investigating New York City’s municipal hospitals, characterized Dr. Barondess as a prolific scholar, expert diagnostician, and “doctor’s doctor.” We fondly remember Dr. Barondess for his academic wisdom, sophistication, and steadfast commitment to mobilizing cross-disciplinary collaboration to make progress on the biggest challenges in public health and medicine. The entire Columbia Mailman community extends our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH
Dean and DeLamar Professor of Public Health
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Professor of Medicine and Senior Vice President
Columbia University Irving Medical Center

and

Charles Branas, PhD
Gelman Professor and Chair
Department of Epidemiology
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health