Baruch Samuel Blumberg (July 28, 1925 – April 5, 2011), known as Barry Blumberg, was an American physician, geneticist, and co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Daniel Carleton Gajdusek), for his work on the hepatitis B virus while an investigator at the NIH and at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Blumberg and Gajdusek received the Nobel Prize for discovering "new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases.

(That school also had among its students a contemporary of Blumberg, Eric Kandel, who is another recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine.)

[22] In November 2004, Blumberg was named chairman of the scientific advisory board of United Therapeutics Corporation,[23] a position he held until his death.

As chairman, he convened three "Conference[s] on Nanomedical and Telemedical Technology",[24] as well as guiding the biotechnology company in the development of a broad-spectrum anti-viral medicine.

[25] In October 2010, Blumberg participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program, in which middle and high school students of the Greater Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland area got to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize–winning scientist over a brown-bag lunch.

At the time, a number of developmentally disabled children who had been institutionalized at Willowbrook were being mainstreamed into the public schools.

The New York Public Health department convened a panel to decide policy led by Saul Krugman; however, Blumberg with his open views, was notably excluded.

"[33] In reference to Blumberg's discovery of the Hepatitis B vaccine, former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said, "Our planet is an improved place as a result of Barry's few short days in residence.

"[34][35][36] In 2011, the Library of Congress and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the establishment of the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, a research position housed within the library's John W. Kluge Center, which explores the effects of astrobiology research on society.

The chair was named for Blumberg in recognition of his service to the Library of Congress Scholars Council, and his commitment to "research and dialogue between disciplines.