Sydney Cohen (18 September 1921 – 25 July 2017) was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Chemical Pathology,

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

Medical School, and an authority on

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

Biography

Sydney Cohen was born on 18 September 1921 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

to Pauline (née Soloveychik) and Morris Cohen, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania.Sydney Cohen obituary
/ref> He was educated at

King Edward VII School, Johannesburg King Edward VII School (KES) is a public English medium high school for boys situated within the city of Johannesburg in South Africa's Gauteng Province, one of the historically significant Milner Schools. The school is a public school, with ...

, and at

Witwatersrand University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, graduating MB BCh in 1944. In 1945 he sailed to the UK and worked at the

Royal Berkshire Hospital The Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) is a large NHS hospital in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It provides acute hospital services to the residents of the western and central portions of Berkshire, and is managed by the R ...

, treating the war injured. He travelled back and forth to South Africa for the next decade, gaining his MD at Wits in 1954. That same year he left South Africa to join the

National Institute for Medical Research The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC); In 2016, the NIMR b ...

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18,45 ...

, where “in a very productive six-year period he carried out basic studies on the metabolism of plasma proteins in rabbits, baboons and humans.” Cohen gained his PhD from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, in 1959. He moved to St Mary's Hospital Medical School in 1960, where he was Reader in the Department of Immunology. From 1965 until his retirement in 1986, he was Professor of Chemical Pathology at Guy’s Hospital Medical School. The Royal Society's biography of Professor Cohen notes that:

Perhaps of greatest significance was his work with malaria. Sydney (with Ian McGregor) showed for the first time, that immunity could be passively transferred with immune IgG.''See for example'' An in vitro assay was devised for analysing the mechanism of malaria immunity and the variant specificity of protective antibody was demonstrated. This provided a means of isolating malarial antigens and free merozoites and for analysing the basis of host specificity. A practical method has resulted for screening antimalarial drugs.

Other positions held

He was a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and chairman of its Tropical Medicine Research Board, 1974–76. He was the chairman of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

Scientific Group on Immunity to Malaria, 1976–81, and a member of the WHO expert advisory panel on malaria, 1977–89. He helped to found the

Royal College of Pathologists The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to pr ...

in 1964. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and appointed a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1978. He was on the Council of the Royal Society, 1981–83, and the Royal Society Assessor on the MRC, 1982–84.

Family

In 1950 he married June Bernice Adler, a magistrate whom he met at a tennis party at her grandfather’s house in Johannesburg. June died in London in 1999, aged 69. That year he married Deirdre Maureen Ann Boyd, who had assisted him at Guy’s, and later they moved to St Andrews, on Scotland’s east coast, where he was a member of the Royal and Ancient golf club; they lived four minutes walk away. He died in July 2017 at the age of 95. His son,

Roger Cohen Roger Cohen (born 2 August 1955) is a journalist and author. He was a reporter, editor and columnist for ''The New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune (later re-branded as the'' '' International New York Times)''.and became head of ...

, born in London in 1955, is a columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and '' International Herald Tribune''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Sydney 1921 births 2017 deaths British chemists Malariologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society British Jews South African Jews Jewish scientists Alumni of the University of London South African expatriates in the United Kingdom