William E. Paul

William Erwin Paul (June 12, 1936 – September 18, 2015) was an American immunologist. He and Maureen Howard discovered interleukin 4, while an independent team led by Ellen Vitetta did the same in 1982. Paul worked on AIDS research for much of his career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Background Paul's father Jack immigrated to the United States from Ukraine with his mother and younger siblings in 1911 to join his father and other family members. While in America, Jack Paul met and married Sylvia Gleicher, a cousin of Norman Geschwind. Their son William Erwin Paul was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 12, 1936. William Paul attended Erasmus Hall High School and graduated from Andrew Jackson High School, in Queens, New York. William Paul graduated from Brooklyn College in 1956 before earning a medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine four years later. He received the 2002 American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2008 Max Delbrück Medal.

Paul was adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Senior Professor at Tel Aviv University.

He died in Manhattan of acute myeloid leukemia on September 18, 2015, aged 79.