Bernard Roizman

Bernard Roizman (April 17, 1929 – April 13, 2026) was an American scientist. He was the Joseph Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Virology in the Department of Microbiology and Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago.

Early life and education Roizman was born in Chișinău, Kingdom of Romania, in 1929. As he later recalled, his early life was "shaped by World War II" and the hardships his family endured as war refugees after being displaced in 1941 by the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The family eventually made their way to the United States in 1948, where they settled in Philadelphia. He was one of several prominent virologists involved in the founding of the American Society for Virology and organized a key meeting in Chicago that led to the society's establishment.

Roizman's research interests focused on the herpes simplex virus, particularly on regulation of viral genes and on the use of site-specific mutagenesis to study viral gene function. .

Personal life and death Roizman's wife Betty was a legal librarian; they married in 1950. He had a son, Arthur. Roizman died in Chicago on April 13, 2026, at the age of 96.

Awards and honors Elected: Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1979 Foreign Member, Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2000 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2004