Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, a Venezuelan-born immunologist, died on 2 August 2011 of pneumonia, at his home in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston at 90 years of age. He was the son of a textile merchant who hoped that his son would carry on the family business, and he spent most of his childhood in Paris. Dr. Benacerraf was troubled by asthma as a child, and his interest in immunology was probably influenced by his medical problem.His family left Paris at the start of World War II and settled in New York City. He had developed a love of science in high school and received a bachelor's degree in biology in 1942 from Columbia University.Instead of joining the family business, Dr. Benacerraf studied medicine. After being rejected by a number of medical schools, he was accepted at the Medical College of Virginia (now part of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond). In 1943, he became an American citizen and married Annette Dreyfus, a French student and fellow refugee whom he had met at Columbia.
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