Brian MacMahon
| Brian MacMahon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
23 August 1923 Sheffield, England, UK |
| Died | 5 December 2007 (aged 84) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Fields | Epidemiology |
| Institutions | Harvard School of Public Health, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Known for | Breast cancer epidemiology |
| Notable awards | Charles S. Mott Prize (1992) |
Brian MacMahon (23 August 1923 – 5 December 2007) was a British-born United States epidemiologist who chaired the Department of Epidemiology of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1958 until 1988. Best known for his work on the epidemiology of breast cancer, he also pioneered research on associations between passive smoking and lung cancer, and between diet and risk of cancer.
MacMahon was born in Sheffield, where his father, Desmond MacMahon, was a professional violinist. In 1948, he married Heidi Marie Graber from Switzerland (died 2001); the couple had two sons and two daughters. MacMahon also had a brother, Paddy, who was a doctor in the British Army.
MacMahon emigrated to the United States in the late 1950s, and became a U.S. citizen in 1962. He died at Boston, Massachusetts in 2007, aged 84, following a stroke.
MacMahon studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, gaining the diplomas of the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons in 1946, and the MB BChir in 1948. After working as a locum doctor in impoverished areas of Birmingham, MacMahon served as a ship's doctor in the British Merchant Navy from 1946 to 1948. He later said that these experiences left him "somewhat dispirited about a future in clinical medicine".
Enrolment in a course in public health at the University of Birmingham brought him into contact with epidemiologists Thomas McKeown, Ronald Lowe and Reginald Record, who became his supervisors in a PhD in "social medicine" (as epidemiology was then known) studying infantile pyloric stenosis. After gaining his Ph.D in 1952, he travelled to the USA to obtain a Master's in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (1953). In 1955, he gained the MD degree at the University of Birmingham.
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