University Times

Herbert Rosenkranz, who served as interim dean of the University’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) from 1998 to 2001, died Saturday, Nov. 27 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., at the age of 71.

He served as interim dean following the resignation of Donald Mattison, until Bernard Goldstein, became dean on June 1, 2001. Rosenkranz retired from GSPH’s faculty in December 2002 with emeritus status. He came to Pitt in October 1990 as professor and chairman of the department of environmental and occupational health (EOH).

In 2002, GSPH established the Herbert S. Rosenkranz Award in honor of his dedication to improving student research. The award, which recognizes the creative contribution to public health research, practice or education by a GSPH student, is given annually at GSPH’s Dean Day, which was established by Rosenkranz in 1999.

At the time of his death, Rosenkranz was professor of biomedical science at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University.

“Dr. Rosenkranz led the Graduate School of Public Health through two-and-a-half years of transition as that school’s dean, and he was invaluable in continuing its rise to one of the finest public health schools in the country,” said Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean at the University’s School of Medicine. “He was an eminent scholar and scientist, and a person of great wisdom and integrity who remained loyal to the university throughout his career in Pittsburgh and into his retirement. This is a great loss not only to our community, but to his field of research world-wide.”

“He was a man of great talent and vision who was exceptionally notable for his gentleness and warmth,” Goldstein said. “His outstanding contributions to our school, and to the environmental and public health science, will long be remembered.”

Born in Vienna, Austria, on Sept. 27, 1933, Rosenkranz received his B.S. in chemistry from the City College of New York in 1954, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University Medical College in 1959. Earlier this year, Rosenkranz was honored by Cornell University’s Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Before coming to the GSPH in 1990, Rosenkranz held professorships and chairmanships at Columbia University and at Case Western Reserve University, where he served as the Mary Ann Swetland Chair.

One of his colleagues, Valerian Kagan, Pitt professor of environmental and occupational health and vice-chairman of the department, remembers Rosenkranz as a role model for professionalism. “What impressed me was that he was a person of encyclopedic knowledge.” As a person, Kagan remembered Rosenkranz was a very humble and shy man.

Rosenkranz won numerous awards, including a 10-Year Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health; awards for scientific excellence from the German government; the Aaron Bendich Lectureship from Cornell University; the Corporate Recognition Award from Xerox Corporation; and the Recognition Award of the International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies. He has served on the editorial boards of all the major publications in his discipline, including Mutation Research and Environmental Science Research.

In addition to chairing the GSPH’s EOH department, Rosenkranz was the founder and director of the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Toxicology, which opened in January 1993 as a collaboration of the GSPH and the University’s Medical Center.

He garnered international recognition for his seminal research in structure activity relationship science. Computer Assisted Structure Evaluation, an expert system he developed to predict the toxicity of new compounds based on their chemical structure, can be used to predict beneficial and therapeutic activity. The latest efforts by Rosenkranz and his colleagues aimed at reducing the uncertainty in chemical hazards risk assessment.

Rosenkranz is survived by his wife, Deanna and eight children (daughters Pnina Weiss, Margalit Heim, Dara Rosenkranz, Sara Soued, Naomi Rosenkranz and Tsilila Goldberg, and sons Joshua Rosenkranz and Amiel Rosenkranz) and three grandchildren.

Memorial contributions can be made to Boca Raton Synagogue, 700 Montoya Circle, Boca Raton, Fla., 33433, or AMIT, 22139 Larkspur Trail, Boca Raton, Fla. 33433.