Background
Lilienfeld was born in New York City on November 13, 1920. His father, Joe Lilienfeld, came from a wealthy family in Galicia, Ukraine, and worked as a Galician rabbinical scholar.
Lilienfeld was born in New York City on November 13, 1920. His father, Joe Lilienfeld, came from a wealthy family in Galicia, Ukraine, and worked as a Galician rabbinical scholar.
Bachelor, Johns Hopkins University, 1941; Master in Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 1949; Doctor of Medicine, U. Maryland., 1944; Doctor of Science (honorary), University Maryland., 1975.
In 1941, he received his Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins, after which he applied to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, but was told he would be rejected because he was Jewish. He then enrolled at Albany Medical College for a time before transferring to the University of Maryland"s medical school. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland in 1944, and his Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1949.
Lilienfeld joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health as a lecturer in 1950, and became an Assistant Professor of epidemiology there in 1952.
From 1954 to 1958, he served on the faculty of the University of Buffalo School of Medicine. During this time, he also founded, and served as the first chairman of, the Department of Statistics and Epidemiological Research at Roswell Park Memorial Institute.
In 1958, he returned to Johns Hopkins, where he became the head of the Department of Chronic Diseases in 1961. In 1964, he was named the staff director of the President"s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
In 1970, he resigned his position as the head of the department of chronic diseases at Johns Hopkins to become the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology there.
In 1975, he resigned as chair of this department. He has been described as "instrumental" in the founding of the American College of Epidemiology in 1979. Lilienfeld died on August 6, 1984 of a heart attack in a Baltimore train station, at the age of 63.
The American College of Epidemiology"s most prestigious award, the "Abraham Lilienfeld Award", has been awarded annually since 1985.
Trustee Maryland. Heart Association. Executive Board Maryland. division American Cancer Society, 1964-1970;trustee Baltimore Hebrew College, 1973-1984, chairman, 1974-1977. Fellow American Public Health Association (Bronfman award public health achievement 1968), American College Preventive Medicine, American Statistics Association, American College Epidemiology.
Member American Epidemiology Society (president 1970-1971), American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society Epidemiological Research, Institute Medicine of National Academy Sciences, American Association History of Medicine.
Married Lorraine Zemil, July 18, 1943. Children: Julia, Saul, David.