Robert Wayne McCollum Jr. (January 29, 1925 – September 13, 2010) was an American virologist and epidemiologist who made pioneering studies into the nature and spread of polio, hepatitis and mononucleosis while at the Yale School of Medicine, after which he served for nearly a decade as Dean of the Dartmouth Medical School.
[1] Working together with Dr. Dorothy M. Horstmann, McCollum isolated poliovirus in blood samples taken from those afflicted with the disease and from their family members, verifying that the virus was present in the bloodstream before it entered the spinal cord and caused paralysis.
[3] Attending the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, McCollum earned a doctorate in public health in 1958.
Back at Yale, McCollum and Dr. Saul Krugman performed studies at Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York City, involving ethically dubious human experimentation on mentally disabled children.
He was survived by his wife, the former Audrey Talmage, as well as by a daughter, Cynthia, a son, Douglas and two grandchildren, Justin and Zachary.