Martin D. Kaplan, 89; Health Researcher Was Disarmament Advocate
Martin D. Kaplan, 89, a health researcher and former secretary-general of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pugwash conference on disarmament, died Oct. 16 at a hospital in Geneva, his daughter, Alexa Kaplan Intrator, told Associated Press on Tuesday. The cause of death was not announced.
A veterinarian from Philadelphia, Kaplan published more than 150 papers on topics such as rabies, influenza and tropical maladies while working for the World Health Organization for more than 50 years.
He was an early member of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, which was founded in 1955. For a dozen years, he was secretary-general of the organization, which brings together scholars and public figures to reduce the danger of armed conflict and seek cooperative solutions for global problems. The group and its founder, Joseph Rotblat, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
Kaplan earned his degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and his master’s in public health from the same university two years later.
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