Born in Warsaw, he settled in the United States as a refugee during World War II.
His research centered on unicellular organisms such as Trichomonadida and Kinetoplastida, the name which he invented.
He led the Committee on Taxonomy and Taxonomical Problems of the Society of Protozoologists and made a new Systematics of Protozoa in 1964.
[6] Entering the University of California, Berkeley, he earned a BA in 1943, an MA in 1946, PhD in 1950.
[7] He was member of the International Union of Biological Sciences Commission on Protozoology from 1965 to 1985, Committee on Nomenclature of Protists of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, and various sections of US Public Health Services.