Mahadeo “Dave” Verma ’57

Public health advocate Mahadeo “Dave” Verma ’57 died April 12, 2015. He was 85 years old.

Verma was born in Narsinghpur, India, in 1929 and emigrated to the United States in 1956. He earned a degree in biology from Cornell and went on to earn a master’s degree in zoology and a Ph.D. in hygiene and preventative medicine from the University of Iowa, and a master’s of public health from the University of Pittsburgh.

He spent his career dedicated to public health, including serving as director of Public Health Labs for the state of Delaware for 25 years. He also was an advocate for public health on a national and global scale. During the 1990s he worked with the World Health Organization and USAID-India to train lab practitioners on working with blood and avoiding blood-based pathogens in the fight against HIV/AIDS in India and Africa. In 2001 Verma reviewed the laboratory practices and effectiveness of The Global Polio Eradication Initiative.