Dr. Harold A. Abramson (Harold Alexander R. Abramson) was born on November 27, 1899.  He received a B.A. from Columbia in 1919 and an M.D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1923. As a medical student, he was awarded the Meyerhof Prize in 1921.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Abramson traveled widely, and was affiliated with laboratories at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, as well as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin.  He also began long affiliations with laboratories at Mount Sinai Hospital and at Cold Spring Harbor.  Returning to P&S, he became Assistant Professor of Physiology from 1935 to 1942.

He was on military leave from 1943 to August of 1946, and during this period he earned the United States Army’s Legion of Merit “for vital contributions to the Chemical Warfare Service and thus to the war effort” for work involving aerosol penicillin.

He returned to P&S in September of 1946, and became Assistant Clinical Professor of Physiology from 1948-57. During the 1950s, Dr. Abramson was involved in LSD research conducted at Mount Sinai and funded by the CIA, and he appears in the Church Commission’s investigation of CIA practices.  His later career was spent at Mount Sinai Hospital and various smaller hospitals in the New York area.  He continued his studies of the relationship between psychology and allergies. Dr. Abramson died on September 29, 1980.

It is important not to confuse Harold A. Abramson (1899-1980) with Harold Abramson (1899-1974) who was graduated from Columbia College in 1920 and received his M.D. from the College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1924.