Spielman was a world-renowned expert in the vector-borne illnesses malaria, Lyme disease, babesiosis and in the ways in which they are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks.
D. in Biology in the malaria lab at Johns Hopkins University in 1952, serving thereafter as a public health entomologist in the U.S. Navy (he left the service as a lieutenant commander).
After George Healy, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control, helped diagnose a second case of human babesiosis on Nantucket in 1973, Spielman traveled to the island for a series of visits to investigate the outbreaks of the disease which usually affects animals, destroying (like its relative malaria) their red blood cells.
[citation needed] Spielman was beloved as mentor to two generations of students and postdoctoral fellows whom he encouraged in his special brand of combined lab and fieldwork, the latter including a boyish excitement for intrepid adventures such as spelunking and climbing cliffs.
[citation needed] Spielman disagreed, he asserted that maintaining I. dammini's separate identity is key to understanding the ecology and epidemiology of tick-borne diseases.