Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tamara Eugenia Awerbuch-Friedlander
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Uruguay |
| Died | October 2021 |
| Occupation | Biomathematician, Public Health Researcher, professor |
| Nationality | Israeli, Uruguayan |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater |
|
| Period | 20th and 21st centuries |
| Genre | biomathematics, Biostatistics, statistics, public health, biomathematics, emergent diseases, Epidemiology, HIV/AIDS |
| Subject | Biostatistics, statistics, public health, biomathematics, disease vectors, entomology |
| Literary movement | Women's health, feminism, university women |
| Notable works | The Truth is the Whole: Essays in Honor of Richard Levins Paperback – 1 Sept. 2018 |
| Notable awards | Fulbright Scholarship (mathematical epidemiology), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award |
| Relatives | Parents: Chaya Clara Goldman Friedlander and Michael Friedlander |
Tamara Eugenia Awerbuch-Friedlander was a smart scientist who used math to study biology and public health. She worked at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Her main research looked at how social and biological factors work together to cause or spread diseases. She is also known for being the first female professor at Harvard to have a jury trial for a lawsuit against Harvard University about sex discrimination.
| Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Early Life and Education
Tamara Awerbuch was born in Uruguay. She lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until she was 12 years old. Then, she moved to Israel with her parents. Her family had moved there after escaping Nazi Germany before the Holocaust.
She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1965, she earned a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Chemistry. She also studied biochemistry. In 1967, she completed two Master's degrees: one in Physiology and one in Education. She was allowed to teach all grades from kindergarten to 12th grade in Israel. She also served for two years in the Israeli army.
In 1973, she visited friends in America. She was offered a job at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, she studied chemicals that could cause cancer using a new method called tissue culture. She worked in the lab and took one course each semester. In 1975, she became a full-time student at MIT. She earned her doctorate degree in Nutrition and Food Science in 1979. She became a US citizen and lived in the United States from then on.
In 1983, she joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She later started a long career in the Department of Global Health and Population there in 1993.
Tamara had two sons, Danny and Ari, in the 1980s. They grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. She spoke English, Hebrew, and Spanish very well. She could also understand and read German.
Her Degrees and Studies
- She studied at Hebrew University in Israel:
- Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Chemistry (with biochemistry) – 1965
- Master of Science (MSc) in Physiology – 1967
- Master of Education (MEd) – 1967 (she could teach K–12)
- She earned her PhD from MIT in 1979. Her main study was Metabolism.
- Her PhD paper was about finding safe levels of chemicals in food.
- She did more research at MIT from 1979 to 1981.
Her Work as a Public Health Scientist
Since the early 2000s, Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander focused on research about how diseases start, stay, and spread. Her work included diseases carried by insects, like Lyme disease, dengue, and Zika virus. She also studied how to control rabies based on its history.
Her work often involved different fields of science. She wrote papers with scientists from other countries and from different departments at Harvard and MIT.
She created mathematical models that helped make important discoveries about diseases. For example, her models showed that the number of ticks changes in a natural up-and-down pattern. She shared her work at many international meetings. She was even invited to a special program on epidemic models in Cambridge, England.
Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander helped start a group called the New and Resurgent Disease Working Group. She helped organize a conference about new and returning diseases. She also led a workshop on using math models for these diseases. She worked with scientists from Israel, Cuba, and Brazil on different disease topics. For example, she worked with Cuban scientists on plant diseases. In the late 1990s, she worked on a project about why new diseases surprised public health experts. She also helped lead a committee at Harvard about math in biology and public health. Some of her research papers came from working with students in her "Mathematical Models in Biology" class.
The Truth is the Whole Book
Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander also led the planning for a special event. It was a three-day conference in 2015 to celebrate the 85th birthday of Richard Levins. He was a very important scientist at Harvard. The conference was called "The Truth is the Whole." It focused on Levins's ideas about complex systems in biology.
In September 2018, a book was published with the same title: The Truth Is the Whole: Essays in Honor of Richard Levins. Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander helped edit this book. It included parts of the talks from the Harvard conference.
Fighting for Fairness at Harvard
Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander is believed to be the first female professor at Harvard to file a lawsuit against the university for sex discrimination. This lawsuit was filed in 1997. She was encouraged by her mentors, Richard Levins and Marvin Zelen.
She argued that she was not given a permanent teaching position because she was a woman. This was despite a committee recommending her for the position. Her case was reported by university newspapers and science magazines for many years. These reports showed how the case developed. Her lawsuit was based on Harvard not giving her a permanent job, even though she had achieved a lot in her fields. Harvard argued that there were no permanent positions open in her new department. This case highlighted important discussions about fairness and equal opportunities for women in science.
Notable Student
- Sandro Galea - He studied how different factors affect public health. His work was published in a major public health journal.
Death
Dr. Awerbuch-Friedlander retired and moved to Tel Aviv, Israel. She passed away there in 2021. She was buried in the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel.
See also
In Spanish: Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander para niños
