Joseph L. Melnick

Joseph Louis Melnick (October 9, 1914 – January 7, 2001) was an American epidemiologist who performed breakthrough research on the spread of polio. The New York Times called him "a founder of modern virology". Chief virologist

Leaders in the anti-polio effort. From left: Thomas M. Rivers, Charles Armstrong, John R. Paul, Thomas Francis Jr., Albert Sabin, Melnick, Isabel Morgan, Howard A. Howe, David Bodian, Jonas Salk, Eleanor Roosevelt and Basil O'Connor (1958).

Melnick was chosen as the chief virologist at the division of biological standards at the National Institutes of Health in 1957. He was hired by the Baylor College of Medicine in 1958 as the first head of the school's department of virology and epidemiology. Research he published in 1960 showed that the form of the attenuated vaccine used in the oral polio vaccine developed by Albert Sabin was less harmful to the nervous system than comparable vaccines. A study he performed found that polio vaccine could be stored for long periods by using magnesium chloride as a preservative, eliminating the need for refrigeration. Melnick was named as dean of graduate sciences at Baylor in 1968, a position he held until 1991. Together with heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, Melnick investigated the possible effects that cytomegalovirus might have on coronary artery diseases.

A regimen for the treatment of a polio outbreak in the 1980s in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by a joint effort of Israeli and Palestinian health officials used a combination of live attenuated and inactivated forms of the polio vaccine as recommended by Melnick and Nathan Goldblum, as those receiving as many as four doses of the oral polio vaccine alone were still susceptible to polio.

On January 2, 1958, Melnick was one of 17 people inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame at Warm Springs, Georgia together with 10 other European and American polio experts.

An editor of multiple scientific journals, Melnick wrote and edited the section on virology in a standard text on microbiology.

Melnick died at age 86 on January 7, 2001, in Houston, as a result of complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was survived by his wife, Matilda Benyesh-Melnick, his daughter and granddaughter.