Edward Newman Brandt Jr. MD (July 3, 1933 – August 26, 2007) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, and public health administrator. He was appointed acting

Surgeon General of the United States The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. Th ...

from 1981 to 1982, and served as the

United States Assistant Secretary for Health The assistant secretary for health (ASH) is a senior U.S. government official within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The position is a statutory office () and the holder of the office serves as the United State ...

from 1981 to 1984.

Early life and career

Born in Oklahoma City, Brandt graduated with an MD and PhD in biostatistics from the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

School of Medicine. He was a faculty member from his alma mater from 1961 to 1970 before moving to the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

at Galveston (1970–1981),

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

at Baltimore (1981–1989) and

School of Medicine (1989–2007). In 1984, Brandt agreed to attend an awards dinner to present an award to the Blood Sister Project a lesbian group that helped enlist and collect blood donations for AIDS victims. However, possibly due to pressure from "pro-family" groups, he did not attend.

Death

Brandt died of lung cancer on August 26, 2007; he was 74 years old. His papers were donated to the National Library of Medicine.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Edward Jr. 1933 births 2007 deaths Surgeons General of the United States 20th-century American mathematicians People from Oklahoma City University of Oklahoma alumni Deaths from lung cancer in Oklahoma University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine