Arthur F. Coca, M.D.

 Brief Bio

Arthur F. Coca was the founder of The Journal of Immunology (The JI), serving as its editor from 1916 to 1948, and the only honorary president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI), a title he held from 1949 to 1960. A distinguished instructor and researcher, Coca established the high standards that have made The JI the preeminent peer-reviewed journal in the field of immunology.

Coca received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1900 and remained there as an assistant demonstrator (1900–1903) and, later, a demonstrator (1903–1905). He left Pennsylvania in 1905 to study in Germany at Heidelberg University (1905–1909). From 1907 to 1909, Coca served as an assistant in a chemical laboratory at the Cancer Institute of Heidelberg. Coca left Germany for the Philippines in 1909 and spent one year as a bacteriologist at the Bureau of Science in Manila. Upon his return to the United States in 1910, Coca joined the staff at the Cornell University Medical College as an instructor in pathology and bacteriology (1910–1919). It was while teaching at Cornell that Coca joined AAI and founded The JI in 1916. He was promoted to assistant professor of immunology at Cornell in 1919 and full professor in 1924. In 1931, Coca accepted positions as a professor of medicine at the New York Postgraduate Medical School at Columbia University (1931–1935) and as the medical director at Lederle Laboratories. He remained at Lederle Laboratories until his retirement in 1949. Coca continued to study allergy in his private practice until his death on December 11, 1959.

 AAI Service History

 Institutional/Biographical Links

• The Journal of Immunology obituary