Robert M. Chanock

Who was Robert M. Chanock?

Robert Merritt Chanock was an American pediatrician and virologist who made major contributions to the prevention and treatment of childhood respiratory infections in more than 50 years spent at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Chanock was born July 8, 1924 in Chicago. His post-secondary plans were to study physics. When he was drafted by the United States Army in 1943, he was given the choice of attending medical school with his course of study paid for by the military or going to the front lines. Chanock passed the entrance examination and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1945 and the University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1947. He did his internship at Highland Hospital in Oakland and trained in pediatrics at the University of Chicago.

After completing his medical training, he did a fellowship Cincinnati's Children's Hospital, where he worked under Albert Sabin, who called Chanock his "star scientific son." He was drafted by the Army in 1952 and was sent to Korea to help deal with an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis, but a ruptured appendix forced him to Tokyo, where he did research on infectious disease.