February 1, 2024
Dear Harvard Chan School Community,
It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of emeritus faculty member Joseph D. Brain. Joe joined the Department of Environmental Health in 1962 as a young graduate student researching the body’s response to inhaled gases, particulates, and microbes and went on to conduct pioneering research in lung biology and environmental physiology. His integrity, optimism, and courage marked his academic work and his tremendous impact as a role model and mentor to countless colleagues and students across more than six decades at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Before his retirement in 2022, Joe was the Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Physiology and served as chair of the Department of Environmental Health from 1990 to 2005. His time at Harvard University was impressive first as a student and then as a faculty member—he earned a master’s degree in applied physics in 1962, a master’s degree in radiological hygiene in 1963, and a doctorate in physiology in 1966 before he joined the faculty of the School of Public Health in 1968.
Joe was widely loved and respected—indeed, he was described as the heart and soul of the Department of Environmental Health by colleagues during a moving tribute in 2021 that honored the vast scope of his scientific footprint and the positive and enduring influence of his leadership, generosity, and equanimity.
Joe was celebrated not only as a physicist and biologist, a role model and mentor, but also as a true innovator with a gift for facilitating uncanny, fruitful connections between people. The School also celebrated Joe’s legacy with the establishment of the Joseph D. Brain Fellowship Fund in Environmental Health, which provides resources for environmental health scholars to pursue their educational goals.
One of Joe’s great priorities was a course called “The Human Organism,” which Joe taught for over four decades, beginning in 1971, to encourage undergraduate students to think more critically about public health. After delivering his final class lecture in 2013, Joe told the Harvard Crimson why connecting topics in public health to the humanities, social sciences, and current events matters. “The context is that health really is a big deal,” he said. “Whether you feel well or if you get certain diseases, it’s a huge part of our life, and it’s a huge part of the economy. I really want people to understand the determinants of health: of their own individual health, of the people of the United States, global health.”
Joe died peacefully on January 29, 2024, and his passing was shared in a notice from Harvard Chan colleagues Jeffrey J. Fredberg and Nancy Long Sieber, who wrote that Joe embodied all they admire and seek to model in themselves. His style of leadership sustained and grew the warm and collegial atmosphere in the Department of Environmental Health, they wrote. He was open to new ideas, embraced contrary viewpoints, and always maintained “a benevolent smile, often with his arms stretched out wide to his side, fingers extended, as if to embrace within his warmth all who were present.” I love their inspiring and memorable description of Joe’s interpersonal style: “When challenged with conflict, Joe invariably answered with the potent one-two punch of logic and love.”
Please join us in keeping Joe’s beloved wife, Judy, and the rest of his family close in your thoughts during this difficult time. I offer my sincere condolences to his colleagues, friends, and family—and to Joe, my humble gratitude for all you gave.
Best,
Andrea
Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Read more about Joe Brain
Remembering Joe Brain, a champion for public health (Lown Institute)
In memory of Joe Brain (Countway Library Center for the History of Medicine)
Joe Brain on his book The Education of Alice Hamilton (Harvard Chan School News)
Photos: Kent Dayton