Background
Brent, Leslie was born on July 5, 1925 in Köslin, Germany. Son of Arthur and Charlotte (Rosenthal) Baruch.
educator historian immunologist Zoologist
Brent, Leslie was born on July 5, 1925 in Köslin, Germany. Son of Arthur and Charlotte (Rosenthal) Baruch.
Bachelor of Science in Zoology, U. Birmingham, England, 1951; Doctor of Philosophy in Immunology, U. London, 1954.
He has been Professor Emeritus, University of London, since 1990. An immunologist, he is the co-discoverer with Peter Medawar and Rupert Billingham of acquired immunological tolerance. They injected cells from donor mice into fetal mice, and later neonatal mice, which would as adults receive donor skin grafts without rejection.
To avoid persecution in the largely non-Jewish Köslin, his family placed him in the Jewish Orphanage Berlin-Pankow in Berlin in 1936. Because his status as a German national would have made him liable to execution in the event of capture, he was advised to change his name. After the war, he became a British citizen and enrolled at University of Birmingham.
As a secular Jew who escaped the Holocaust, Brent is highly critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. Education: Bunce Court School, Kent. Birmingham Central Technical College.
University of Birmingham (President, Guild of Undergraduates, 1950–51). University College London (PhD). Laboratory technician, 1941–43
Army service, 1943–47, Captain
Lecturer, Department of Zoology, UCL, 1954–62
Rockefeller Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology, 1956–57
Research scientist, National Institute for Medical Research, 1962–65
Professor of Zoology, University of Southampton, 1965–69
Professor of Immunology, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, 1969–90
European Editor, Transplantation, 1963–68
Chairman: Wessex Branch, Institute of Biology, 1966–68
General Secretary, British Transplantation Society, 1971–75
President, The Transplantation Society, 1976–78.
Chairman British U. Vietnam Orphans Fund, 1967-1969, Haringey Community Rels. Council, London, 1978-1980, Haringey Social Democratic Party, 1981-1983, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School Arts Committee Captain British Army, 1943-1947. Member The Transplantation Society (senior, president 1976-1978), British Transplantation Society (honorary, founder, general secretary 1972-1975), Royal College Physicians (honorary), American Association Transplant Surgeons (honorary), Scandinavian Society Immunology (honorary), Polish Society Immunology (honorary).
Married Joanne Manley, April 16, 1955 (divorced April 1991). Children: Simon, Susanna, Jennifer. Married CarolPamela Martin, October 12, 1991.