Alexander Langmuir

Alexander Duncan Langmuir (12 September 1910 – 22 November 1993) was an American epidemiologist. He is renowned for creating the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

This photograph depicts Dr. Alexander D. Langmuir seated beside Ms. Ida Sherwood during an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) luncheon.

Alexander D. Langmuir was born in Santa Monica, California. He received his A.B. in 1931 from Harvard, his M.D. in 1935 from Cornell University Medical College, and his M.P.H. in 1940 from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. After serving as a public health officer in New York and as an epidemiologist with the U. S. Army from 1942 to 1946, Langmuir returned to Johns Hopkins to become associate professor of epidemiology in the school of medicine. In 1949, he became director of the epidemiology branch of the National Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, a position he held for over 20 years. He wrote extensively on all phases of epidemiology on a global basis and was recognized internationally as a leading contributor in epidemiology. Langmuir was a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1988 until his death in 1993.