Manfred M. Mayer, Ph.D.

 Brief Bio

Manfred Martin Mayer (1916–1984) was the sixtieth president of the American Association of Immunologists, serving from 1976 to 1977. Mayer, who is renowned for his pioneering studies of complement, was a member of the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University for nearly four decades, first in the School of Hygiene and Public Health (1946–1959) and later in the School of Medicine (1959–1984).

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Mayer immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 17 in 1933 as Hitler was consolidating power. After receiving his B.S. in physical chemistry from the City College of New York, Mayer studied immunochemistry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S), where he was an assistant in Michael Heidelberger’s (AAI ’35, president 1946–1947, 1948–1949) laboratory from 1938 to 1942 and a member of the scientific staff of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War. He received his Ph.D. in 1946 and remained at P&S as an instructor in biochemistry for one year before joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health as an assistant professor in bacteriology in 1946. He became an associate professor two years later. In 1959, he accepted an appointment as associate professor of microbiology in the School of Medicine, where he was promoted to full professor the following year. Mayer held this position for the next 24 years, until his death in 1984.

 AAI Service History

 President's Address

The Journal of Immunology 119, no. 4 (1977): 1195–1203.

 Awards and Honors

• Selman Waksman Lectureship Award, 1957
• Karl Landsteiner Award, American Association of Blood Banks, 1974
• Albion O. Bernstein Award, Medical Society of the State of New York, 1976
• Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1979
• Gairdner Award, 1982

 Institutional/Biographical Links

• The Journal of Immunology obituary
• National Academy of Sciences biographical memoir