UCSD School of Medicine Researcher Lampert Dies
Dr. Peter Wilhelm Lampert, chairman of the department of pathology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine since 1979, died of cancer Sunday at his La Jolla home. He was 57.
Lampert was widely respected in the field of pathology, the branch of medicine that deals with the nature of disease. He concentrated his research on multiple sclerosis and other nerve-damaging diseases, with a focus on the role of viruses in cell damage and the alteration of the immune system.
“He was an extremely gifted administrator, a world-class researcher, an astute neuropathologist and, perhaps most importantly, a very dear friend,” said Dr. David N. Bailey, professor of pathology and acting chairman of the department.
Lampert received his medical degree from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. He completed residency training at the University of Toronto, then moved to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, where he became chief of experimental neuropathology.
In 1969, he came to UCSD as a professor of pathology and head of neuropathology. Since then he has also served as visiting investigator at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation and as a consultant in pathology to Mercy Hospital and the Veterans Administration Medical Center.
Lampert was past president of the American Society of Neuropathologists and served on advisory committees to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
He is survived by his wife, Anne, of La Jolla; three children, Sylvie, of San Diego, Dominique, of the San Francisco Bay Area and Michael of Portland, Ore.; two brothers, Klaus Lampert of Tokyo and Fritz Lampert of Germany; a sister, Ilse Massmann of Germany, and one grandson.
At Lampert’s request, no memorial service will be held. The family suggests donations to the UCSD Cancer Center Foundation or the Peter W. Lampert Memorial Visiting Lectureship/Professorship that is being established by the university’s pathology department.
