Milton Joseph Rosenau (January 1, 1869 – April 9, 1946) was an American public health official and professor who was influential in the early twentieth century.

Unwelcome amongst the inhabitants of Eagle Pass, the three hundred or so migrants were placed in a distant and ill-cared for camp just north of the Rio Grande River.

In 1898, Rosenau left, subsequently serving as the Director of the National Hygienics Laboratory, and as a quarantine officer at the Philippine Islands and Santiago.

In this role, Rosenau studied the quality of various vaccines being sold on the market, and found a significant variation in terms of their purity.

This led him to publish a report that influenced many physicians and members of the public to call for more government supervision in the manufacturing of vaccines.

He aimed to reduce milkborne diseases and stated that "next to water purification, pasteurization is the most important single preventive measure in the field of sanitation.