November 6, 2001: Jeffrey Paris Wall's body was found sprawled next to a three-story parking structure near his office. Mr. Wall, 41, had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a biomedical expert who held a medical degree, and he also specialized in patent and intellectual property. It had been alleged that Jeffrey Wall had a connection to Biofem.
November 16, 2001: Dr. Don Wiley, 57, disappears during a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee. He had
just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Wiley was one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses, including HIV and the Ebola virus. He was an expert on the
immune system''s response to viral attacks.
November 21, 2001: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke. Pasechnik, who defected to Britain in 1989, succeeded in producing an aerosolized plague microbe that could survive outside the laboratory. He was connected to Britain''s spy agency and recently had started his own company. "In the last few weeks of his life he had put his research on anthrax at the disposal of the [British] Government, in the light of the threat from bioterrorism.
November 24, 2001: Three more dead microbiologists: A Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashes during its landing approach; 22 are killed and nine survive. Among those killed are Dr. Yaakov Matzner, 54, dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine; Amiramp Eldor, 59, head of the haematology department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and a world-recognized expert in blood clotting; and Avishai Berkman, 50, director of the Tel Aviv public health department and businessman
December 10, 2001: Dead microbiologist: "Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] All were part of what they called a coven, and interested in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. The police have no motive as to why they would have wanted to kill Schwartz, who was a single parent and said to be very close to his children. Schwartz worked at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology on DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms.
December 14, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Nguyen Van Set, 44, dies in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had just been written up in the journal Nature for its work in genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing. Scientists there had created a virulent form of mousepox. "They realized that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed,"
January 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski. Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and Brushlinski was killed in Moscow. Both were well known around the world and members of the Russian Academy of Science.
February 9, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Victor Korshunov, 56, is bashed over the head and killed at the entrance of his home in Moscow, Russia. He was the head of the microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian State Medical University and an expert in intestinal bacteria.
February 11, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Ian Langford, 40, is found dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in his home in Norwich, England. When found, his house was described as "blood-spattered and apparently ransacked." He was one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk.
February 28, 2002: Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco: While taking delivery of a pizza, Tanya Holzmayer, 46, is shot and killed by a colleague, Guyang Huang, 38, who then apparently shot himself. Holzmayer moved to the US from Russia in 1989. Her research focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. Holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS. One year earlier, Holzmayer obeyed senior management orders to fire Huang.
March 24, 2002: Dead microbiologist: David Wynn-Williams, 55, is hit by a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England. He was an astrobiologist with the Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames Research Center. He was studying the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet rays and global warming.
March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver, Colorado. He worked at the Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as "Dr. Flu" for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. Mostow was one of the country''s leading infectious disease experts.
November 12 2002: Dr. Benito Que, 52, was "an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on in a carjacking in the medical school''s parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating.
June 24, 2003: Dr. Leland Rickman, a UC San Diego expert on infectious diseases and, since Sept. 11, 2001 a consultant on bioterrorism. He was 47. Rickman died while on a teaching assignment in Lesotho, a small country bordered on all sides by South Africa. He had complained of a headache, but the cause of death was not immediately known. The physician had been working in Lesotho with Dr. Chris Mathews, director of the UC San Diego Medical Center''s Owen Clinic, teaching African medical personnel about the prevention and treatment of AIDS.Rickman, the incoming president of the Infectious Disease Assn. of California, was a multidisciplinary professor and practitioner with expertise in infectious diseases, internal medicine, epidemiology, microbiology and antibiotic utilization.
July 18 2003: David Kelly, a British biological weapons expert, was said to have slashed his own wrists while walking near his home. Kelly was the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office''s non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (Unscom) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in his field, not only in this country, but in the world.
October 11 2003: Michael Perich aged 46 died in one-vehicle car accident. The LSU West Nile research scientist was wearing his seat belt and drowned. He was LSU professor who helped fight the spread of the West Nile virus.
November 20 2003: Scientist Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45 was killed by a hit and run driver that jumped the kerb and ploughed into him in the 1600 block of South Braeswood, Texas. He was studying the virus plaguing cruise ships.
January 20 2004: Robert Shope aged 74 a virus expert who warned of epidemics, died of lung transplant complications reportedly Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which can be caused by either environmental stimulus or a virus. Dr. Shope led the group of scientists who had an 11 million dollar grant working with the most hazardous pathogens known to man especially tropical and emerging diseases as well as bioweapons.
January 24 2004: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley aged 62. Expert on mad cow disease and Ebola. He had a good heart, but it suddenly failed and inquest ruled heart failure.
March 13 2004: Vadake Srinivasan a microbiologist was killed when he crashed his car into a guard rail. The inquest ruled that he had a stroke. His death was a shock to everybody that knew him because he appeared to be in good health
April 2004: Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly, a distinguished Iraqi chemistry professor dies in American custody from a sudden hit to the back of his head caused by blunt trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from behind, possibly with a bar or a pistol. His battered corpse turned up at Baghdad''s morgue and the cause of death was initially recorded as "brainstem compression". It was discovered that US doctors had made a 20cm incision in his skull.
May 5 2004: last seen late April 2004: William T. McGuire aged 39 whose body was found in 3 Suitcases floating in Chesapeake Bay. McGuire Was NJ University Professor and Senior programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
May 5, 2004: Antonina Presnyakova a Russian scientist at a former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia died after an accident with a needle laced with ebola. Scientists and officials said the accident had raised concerns about safety and secrecy at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector, which in Soviet times specialized in turning deadly viruses into biological weapons. Vector has been a leading recipient of aid in an American programme.
May 14, 2004: Dr. Eugene F. Mallove, a Norwich Free Academy graduate, 56, died after being beaten to death during an alleged robbery. Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion. He had just published an open letter outlining the results of and reasons for his last 15 years in the field of new energy research. Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would actually see a free energy device.
June 22, 2004: Astronomer and physicist, Austrian born Thomas Gold famous over the years for a variety of bold theories that flout conventional wisdom died of heart failure. Gold's theory of the deep hot biosphere holds important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. He was Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell University and wass the founder (and for 20 years director) of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He was also involved in air accident investigation.
June 29 2004: John Mullen aged 67 A nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas died from a huge dose of poisonous arsenic. Police investigating will not say how Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came from. At the time of his death he was doing contract work for Boeing.
July 3, 2004: Dr Paul Norman, 52, of Salisbury, Wiltshire, was killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon. He was married with a 14-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter, and was the chief scientist for chemical and biological defence at the Ministry of Defence's laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire. The crash site was examined by officials from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the wreckage of the aircraft was removed from the site to the AAIB base at Farnborough.
July 21, 2004: Dr Bassem al-Mudares' mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq*. He was a phD chemist and had been tortured before being killed.
July 21, 2004: Dr. John Badwey aged 54: Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge. Suddenly developed pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks. Biochemist at Harvard Medical School specializing in infectious diseases.
July 29, 2004: 67-year-old John Mullen, a nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas dies from a huge dose of poisonous arsenic. Police investigating will not say how Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came from. At the time of his death he was doing contract work for Boeing.
August 12, 2004: Professor John Clark, head of the science lab which created Dolly the sheep, was found hanging in his holiday home. Prof Clark led the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world's leading animal biotechnology research centres. He played a crucial role in creating the transgenic sheep that earned the institute worldwide fame. Prof Clark also founded three spin-out firms from Roslin - PPL Therapeutics, Rosgen and Roslin BioMed.
September 5, 2004: Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani Iraqi nuclear scientist* was shot dead in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. He was a practising nuclear physicist since 1984.
October 13, 2004: Matthew Allison aged 32 died in a car explosion whilst parked at an Osceola County, Florida Wal-Mart store. Witnesses said he left the store at about 11 p.m. and entered his Ford Taurus car when it exploded. Investigators said they found a Duraflame log and propane canisters on the front passenger seat of the car. Allison had a college degree in molecular biology and biotechnology.
November 2, 2004: John R LaMontagne aged 61 died in Mexico with no cause stated. Death later attributed to pulmonary embolism. He was a PhD, Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie Thompson. Was NIAID Deputy Director. Expert in AIDS Program work and Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
December 21, 2004: Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river. Al-Daher, who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.
January 7, 2005: Korean Jeong H. Im, retired research assistant professor at the University of Missouri - Columbia and primarily a protein chemist, died of multiple stab wounds to the chest before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a burning car on the third level of the Maryland Avenue Garage. MUPD with the assistance of the Columbia Police Department and Columbia Fire Department are conducting a death investigation of the incident. A person of interest described as a male 6' - 6'2wearing some type of mask possible a painters mask or drywall type mask was seen in the area of the Maryland Avenue Garage.*More than 310 Iraqi scientists are thought to have perished at the hands of Israeli secret agents in Iraq since fall of Baghdad to US troops in April 2003.
February 8, 2005: Geetha Angara a chemist aged 43. Her body was found in a Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant's tank. Angara, 43, of Holmdel, was last seen on the night of Feb. 8 doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley Water Commission plant in Totowa, where she worked for 12 years. Divers found her body in a 35-foot-deep sump opening at the bottom of one of the emptied tanks. Her death is being treated as a possible homicide. Angara, a senior chemist with a doctorate from New York University, was married and mother of three.
April 18 2005: Dr Douglas James Passaro aged 43. Died from unknown causes in Illinois. Hewas an epidemiologist studying spiral-shaped bacteria that cause stomach disease. He was known for working with his students on real-life exercises in bioterrorism.
May 8 2005: David Banks aged 55 died in a plane crash. He was the principal scientist with quarantine authority Biosecurity Australia and his work involved preventing potentially devastating diseases making their way into Australia. He also studied Nipah virus and Japanese encephalitis.
May 8 2005: Todd Kauppila, aged 41 died of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at Los Alamos hospital. His work was top secret. Kauppila was fired by laboratory director Pete Nanos on Sept. 23 2004 following a security scandal when two computer discs were thought to be missing. The apparent security breach forced Nanos to shut down the lab for several weeks. Kauppila claimed he was made a scapegoat over the disks, which investigators concluded never existed. After he was fired Kauppila accepted a job as a contractor at Bechtel Nevada Corp.
May 19 2005: Robert J Lull aged 66 died of multiple stab wounds. He had been chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1990 and served as a radiology professor at UCSF. He was past president of the American College of Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical Society.
June 8 2005: Leonid Strachunsky died after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow. Investigators are looking for a connection between the murder of this leading bio weapons researcher and the hepatitis outbreak in Tver, Russia.
May 22 2006: Lee Jong-woo aged 61 died after suffering a blood clot on the brain. Lee was spearheading the WHO's fight against global threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general since 2003, Lee was South Korea's top international official. He was a keen sportsman with no history of ill-health.
May 31 2006: Yoram Kaufman aged 57 died after being struck by an automobile while riding his bicycle. He was a leading scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. His primary fields were meteorology and climate change, with a specialty in analyzing aerosols -- airborne solid and liquid particles in the atmosphere. In recent years, he was senior atmospheric scientist in the Earth-Sun Exploration Division and played a key role in the development of NASA's Terra satellite, which collects data about the atmosphere.
January 21 2007: Professor Ardeshir Hassanpour one of Iran's top nuclear scientists died under mysterious circumstances of suspected radioactive poisoning. Hassanpour's death was announced by Iranian state television, a week late and no reason was given for his death. The scientist was proclaimed the best scientist in the military field in the Islamic Republic in 2003. Hassanpour directed the centre for nuclear electromagnetic studies he had founded in 2005. He had also co-founded the center for atomic research in Isfahan.
August 30 2007: Diane Michelangeli aged 45 another specialist in atmospheric science and aerosols died from a series of brain tumours. Her work on modelling chemical process particularly the impact of aerosols was significant.