Lowell Jacob Reed (January 8, 1886 – April 29, 1966) was 7th president of the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. He was born in

Berlin, New Hampshire Berlin ( ) is a city along the Androscoggin River in Coös County, New Hampshire, Coös County in northern New Hampshire, United States. It is the northernmost city in New Hampshire and the only city in Coös County. The population was 9,425 at ...

, the son of Jason Reed, a millwright and farmer, and Louella Coffin Reed.

Education and career

He had a long career as a research scientist in

biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

administration at Hopkins, where he was previously dean and director of the School of Public Health and later was vice president in charge of medical activities. He was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1924 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. In 1927 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

. As a researcher, he developed a well known statistical technique for estimating the

ED-50 In pharmacology, an effective dose (ED) or effective concentration (EC) is the Dose (biochemistry), dose or concentration of a medication, drug that produces a biological response. The term "effective dose" is used when measurements are taken '' ...

, and his work with epidemiologist Wade Hampton Frost on the Reed–Frost epidemic models also remains well known. He died in Berlin, New Hampshire, in 1966. Lowell Reed attended the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

, graduating in 1907 with a degree in electrical engineering. In 1915 he earned a PhD in mathematics at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. This unusual combination of disciplines was put to use when he arrived at

in 1918, where he organized the Department of Biometry and Vital Statistics at the School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the

Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university primarily based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded as the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene ...

) and was credited with coining the term "

". He became chair of that department in 1925 and, in 1947, was named vice president in charge of medical activities. Reed retired from the Hopkins faculty in June 1953, only to be recalled later that summer to serve as president when

Detlev Bronk Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November 17, 1975) was a prominent American scientist, educator, and administrator. He is credited with establishing biophysics as a recognized discipline. Bronk served as president of Johns Hopkins Universi ...

departed for

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

. In September 1953, he returned to Baltimore from his home in

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

to accept the presidency, stating, "For 30-odd years, I have had a glorious time at the Hopkins. I owed it to the people there to return." Although he made it clear that he did not plan to serve indefinitely, he did not regard himself as a caretaker or interim president. He oversaw the end of the

Owen Lattimore Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of '' Pac ...

espionage indictments (all charges were dropped in 1955), and new construction on the various Hopkins campuses, while still keeping a hand in

. Reed retired for the second and final time in 1956, succeeded as president by Milton S. Eisenhower. Returning to his beloved New Hampshire farm, he again took up his hobbies of woodworking, painting, hiking and camping, and enjoyed an active retirement until his death in 1966. Reed Hall, a residence hall for medical school students and house staff on the Johns Hopkins medical campus, was named in his honor in 1962.''Baltimore Sun'', April 30, 1966; ''Baltimore Evening Sun'', April 29, 1966

Selected publications

*with

Raymond Pearl Raymond Pearl (June 3, 1879 – November 17, 1940) was an American biologist, regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. He spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Pearl was a prolific writer of academic books, ...

"On the rate of growth of the population of the United States since 1790 and its mathematical representation."
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 6, no. 6 (1920): 275–288. *with Raymond Pearl
"Skew-growth curves."
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 11, no. 1 (1925): 16–22. *with Raymond Pearl: "On the summation of logistic curves." Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 90, no. 4 (1927): 729–746. *with Hugo Muench
"A simple method of estimating fifty per cent endpoints."
American journal of epidemiology 27, no. 3 (1938): 493–497. *with Margaret Merrell
"A short method for constructing an abridged life table."
American Journal of Hygiene 30 (1939). *with Raymond Pearl and Joseph F. Kish: "The logistic curve and the census count of 1940." Science (New York, NY) 92, no. 2395 (1940): 486–488.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Lowell 1886 births 1966 deaths Presidents of Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty Biostatisticians People from Berlin, New Hampshire Fellows of the American Statistical Association 20th-century American academics University of Maine alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences alumni