Zena Stein

Zena Athene Stein (July 7, 1922 – November 7, 2021) was a South African epidemiologist, activist and doctor.

She was professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at Columbia University.

Stein was born on July 7, 1922, to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants in Durban, South Africa.

Her father was a mathematics professor at Natal Technical College, and her mother was a homemaker.

She completed a BA and MS in History at the University of Cape Town, and a medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Stein and her husband Mervyn Susser, whom she married in 1949, began their medical career at a clinic in Alexandra Township.

They were active in leftist politics, and left South Africa in 1955 after the clinic's board threatened to fire Dr. Susser if he participated on a panel sponsored by the African National Congress.

Stein and Susser moved with their three children to Britain in 1956.

They both obtained positions at Manchester University.

They moved to New York in 1965.

Her husband died in 2014, and Stein died on November 7, 2021, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Stein's research included work on child development, contraception, psychiatric disorders, miscarriage, preterm delivery and birth defects.

With Susser, she published a now famous paper on the epidemiology of peptic ulcer.

After moving to New York in 1965, Stein and her husband both began working for Columbia University, and Stein eventually became a full professor of epidemiology.

In 1987, she was a cofounder of the H.I.V. Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University.

Towards the end of their careers, Stein and Susser focused increasingly on HIV advocacy and research, both in the United States and in their native South Africa.

With other health activists, they organised a meeting in Maputo in April 1990, which aimed to alert the African National Congress to the threat.

The impact of this meeting was limited.

1993 - Doctor of Science in Medicine Honorary Degree from University of Witwatersrand.

With others, they were, however, successful in securing funding for a programme of HIV/AIDS research in Southern Africa and Stein and Susser served as co-directors of the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in 1999.

2012 - Joseph Zubin Award

2013 - Doctor of Science Honorary Degree from Columbia University

2017 - Platinum Medal, the SAMRC Lifetime Achievement award (for scientists who have raised the profile of South African science).