John Greenspan

1938-2023

Professor John S. Greenspan died on 31 March 2023. He was an academic, dentist/scientist, pathologist and accomplished administrator who led oral clinical scientific research in HIV, autoimmune diseases, and oral infections.

John was born in London in 1938 and obtained his BDS at the Royal Dental Hospital (RDH), gained a BSc (first class) in Experimental Pathology at the Royal Free Hospital, a PhD at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and his MRCPath at St George's Hospital Medical School. In 1976, he and his family moved to San Francisco.

John Greenspan's research career spanned over five decades and included numerous groundbreaking discoveries. Particularly important were establishing the relationship between oral health and HIV/AIDS and, working with his wife Deborah, the discovery that oral 'hairy leukoplakia' in AIDS was an Epstein-Barr virus infection. He established the UCSF AIDS Specimen Bank in 1982, became Director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, and founded the 'World Workshops on the Oral Manifestations of HIV' that brings together basic, clinical, and social sciences from around the world.

He was Chair and Professor of Oral Pathology in the Department of Orofacial Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He was the founding Co-principal Investigator of the NIDCR-funded Sjögren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance (SICCA). This collaboration involves over seven countries and, with 1,700 cases, is the world's largest biorepository and data registry for Sjögren's disease.

Throughout his career, John was a mentor to visiting clinicians and scientists from all over the world. Recently, he helped to establish the Global Oral Health International Research Network for the International Association of Dental Research (IADR), with the goal of reducing global oral health inequalities, and served as its first President.

John has been the recipient of over $70 million in research grants and has published over 300 papers and four books. He served as President of both the American Association of Dental Research (AADR) and the IADR. He was the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the AADR Distinguished Scientist Award, and the AADR Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Clinical Research. He was one of the very few dentists to be elected to Membership of the US National Academy of Medicine and was awarded a Fellowship of King's College London.

John has made a unique contribution to oral health research and science. He leaves his wife Deborah, also an RDH graduate, daughter Louise and son Nick.

A Memorial Celebration of John's Life and work will be held on 14 July, 4-7pm, at UCSF: .

Stephen Challacombe and David Williams