Dr. Harry M. Meyer, Jr.

• Grew up in Palestine, Texas, attended Hendrix College and then the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.
• Worked as a researcher in the Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed Army Hospital after graduation.
• Recruited to the NIH to be head of the Virus Research Section in the Laboratory of Virology and Rickettsiology in 1959 and moved into Building 29, third floor, when it opened.
• Worked on the Measles vaccine with Dr. John Enders of Harvard where they conducted trials in West Africa from 1961 to 1964.
• Became Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Immunology in 1964.
• Moved to Building 29A after it opened, working on the second floor with the Laboratory of Viral Immunology.
• Worked with Dr. Parkman on the first Rubella vaccine beginning in 1964 and the new Rubella antibody test (patented in 1971).
• Director of the Bureau of Biologics from 1972–1987 (later called Center for Drugs and Biologics by the time he retired in 1987).

Photo from National Library of Medicine

Bibliography:

Davis, Frances W., editor. “Rubella Immunity Test Patent Issued to DBS; Developed by NIH

Team.” The NIH Record, Volume XXIII, Issue No. 15. July 20, 1971. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, 1971. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://nihrecord.nih.gov/sites/recordNIH/files/pdf/1971/NIH-Record-1971-07-20.pdf.

Neuberg, Phillip W. Maryland Inventory of Historic Places (MIHP) Form M:35-9-12. On file at

Maryland Historical Trust, Crownsville, MD, 2012.

NIH Office of History & Stetten Museum. Telephone Directory, National Institutes of Health.

Misc. years. Bethesda, MD.

Saxon, Wolfgang. “Harry Martin Meyer Jr., 72; Helped Create Rubella Vaccine.” New York

Times, August 25, 2001