Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS ’73

Alfred Sommer is a Johns Hopkins University distinguished service professor; dean emeritus and professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health; and professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. From 1990 to 2005, Dr. Sommer served as dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Under his leadership, the School grew dramatically, doubling the numbers of faculty members and students, while tripling its research grants and contracts. His landmark research on vitamin A has been credited with saving the lives of millions of children around the world, earning him numerous awards, including the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, the Helmut Horten Medical Research Award, the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health, and the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research. 

Dr. Sommer is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and he holds the 19th Chair of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis. He is a corporate director of Becton Dickinson and Company and the T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., a trustee of the Foundation of the International Council of Ophthalmology and Chairman of the Board of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

Dr. Sommer received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1967 and his master's of health science in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (formerly the School of Hygiene and Public Health) in 1973.