Lawrence Brilliant (born May 5, 1944) is an American epidemiologist,[1] technologist, philanthropist, and author, who worked with the World Health Organization from 1973–1976 helping to successfully eradicate smallpox.

[3] Brilliant received his undergraduate training as well as his MPH degree (Masters in Public Health) from the University of Michigan, where he worked on the staff of the Gargoyle Humor Magazine, and his M.D.

Brilliant and some others cashed their tickets in and rented a bus to drive around Europe, which then turned into a relief convoy to help victims of the 1970 Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).

Civil unrest stopped the relief caravan so he spent several years in India studying at a Himalayan ashram with Neem Karoli Baba (a Hindu sage) from whom he received the name Subramanyum.

[7] Brilliant found that Indian officials became more receptive to his efforts when they learned of Neem Karoli Baba's involvement, to which he credits a significant portion of the program's success.

Seva's projects in places like China, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Guatemala have given back sight to more than 3 million blind people through surgery, self-sufficient eye care systems, and low-cost manufacturing of intraocular lenses.

[citation needed] When he returned to the United States, he became a professor of international health at the University of Michigan and started numerous charitable and business ventures.

"[9] He spent the first half of 2005 as a volunteer helping out in the tsunami in Sri Lanka and working in India with WHO in the campaign to eradicate polio.

[16] In May 2013, he gave the commencement speech at Harvard School of Public Health, Imagine that arc of history that Martin Luther King inspired is right here with us.

[17]In spring 2020, Brilliant commented that the World Health Organization, where he had worked for ten years, was slow to declare COVID-19 a pandemic.