He has written numerous books, including his most recent "Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence."

Originally enrolled at the Oriental Institute, he studied ancient Egyptian culture and language under the direction of the distinguished Egyptologist John Wilson.

A 1965 plan to participate in an excavation project in Saqqara near the suspected tomb of Imhotep, the ancient god of healing, was not approved by the Egypt Exploration Fund because the dig was restricted to trained archeologists.

[2] Such an outcome and shifts in excavation plans following UNESCO's call to save Nubian monuments from the impending flooding caused by the new Aswan Dam, induced him to transfer to the History Department.

His dissertation dealt with eighteenth-century medical systems, notably the theories of the Scottish physician John Brown and their impact in Germany during the early 1800s.