Tributes to Prof. Stuart Levy

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) and the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) are very sad to pass on the news that Professor Stuart Levy passed away on Wednesday 4 September 2019 after an extended illness. He would have turned 81 in November.

Stuart B. Levy M.D. was both a physician and researcher. He was Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology and of Medicine and Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Amongst the many offices he held, he was a past President of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) and founder of APUA which he served as President until very recently.

Stuart Levy was best known for his work on antibiotic resistance. His 1976 prospective farm study showing that antibiotic resistance elements can be transferred from intestinal flora of farm animals to workers was a breakthrough, demonstrating that the use of antibiotics as livestock growth-enhancers was a dangerous practice with significant risks to clinical care. In 1978 he discovered that the mechanism of tetracycline resistance was an energy-dependent antibiotic efflux pump. His research into multiple drug resistance revealed a regulatory locus, mar, for intrinsic antibiotic resistance and virulence among Enterobacteriaceae and other bacteria. He published over 300 papers and edited 4 books devoted to antibiotic use and resistance.

Stuart Levy championed the prudent use of antibiotics and wrote the landmark book, “The Antibiotic Paradox: ‘How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle’” now in its second edition and translated into four languages. The ASM book “Frontiers in antimicrobial resistance : a tribute to Stuart B. Levy” was published in 2005 and is based on his work.

Stuart Levy was Chairperson of the U.S. Fogarty Center study of “Antibiotic use and resistance worldwide” and helped write the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment report on antibiotic resistant bacteria. He consulted for international and national organisations including the WHO, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine and the FDA. In 2011 he was presented with ISAC’s highest award, the Hamao Umezawa Memorial Award. Amongst many other accolades, he received the Hoechst Roussel Award for esteemed research in antimicrobial chemotherapy from the ASM and the 2012 Abbott-ASM Lifetime Achievement Award.

APUA is in mourning for its founder and would like to convey heartfelt sympathy to Stuart Levy’s family and friends. He will always be remembered as the father of “antibiotic stewardship” and his legacy will live on through the activities of APUA which ISAC is honored to support.

Professor Pierre Tattevin, APUA Chair
On behalf of The APUA Board

The following condolence messages were received from colleagues / friends of Stuart Levy after the news of his passing was circulated.

If you would like to add a message of your own, please email secretariat@ISAC.world

“Stuart was a dear friend and I mourn his passing with the thousands who knew him personally and professionally. Stu gave many gifts to us all through his kindness, perfect memory, scientific curiosity, and creativity.  He thought globally, acted locally and touched his colleagues with close communication and care.   I’ll remember his quick responses, the gleam in his eye, and a smart bow tie. His favorite prokaryotic friend, the E. coli, has proven to stimulate amazing scientific interest and inquiry with each passing year right up to this week with breaking news from the NY Times.” Joseph F John, Jr., MD FIDSA, FSHEA

“He was one of my heroes and a visionary in the field of antibiotics. The world will miss him.” Prof. Stephen Brecher

“I had the pleasure of attending the Santo Domingo meeting in 1981, where the initial APUA statement on antimicrobial resistance was written. I also had the honor of serving as a member of the APUA Scientific Advisory Board from 1981 until a few years ago. Before we created a the Guatemalan chapter, I was the Coordinator of Scientific Committee of the VI Central American Congress of Microbiology, held in Guatemala City in December 1983 and was able to invite Stu to come and participate in a round table on antimicrobial resistance. I believe that Stu's passing is a great loss for the global scientific and public health communities. I want to express my condolences to his family and to APUA,  at the same time that I recognize Stu for his leadership and accomplishments. His contributions to both science and public health will stay with us and will remind those of us who had the privilege of working with him of his great personal and professional gifts.” Jose Ramiro Cruz

“APUA-Nepal is deeply saddened by the death of Prof. Stuart Levy, founder of APUA. We have been a chapter of APUA since 1999 and were awarded with APUA Chapter Leadership Award-2011 for effective multi-hospital coordination to increase practitioner awareness  of antibiotic resistance trends and guidelines. We would like to convey our heartfelt sympathy to Prof. Levy's family and friends through the APUA Chair.” Prof. Kumud Kafle, APUA Nepal

“I am very sorry and sad to learn of the death of Stuart Levy, whom I knew continuously from his pre-Tufts time at the NIH.  Stuart was always a socially very concerned independent-thinking microbiological sciences researcher and communicator.  His work with the APUA is well known.  His long productive time at Tufts is equally familiar.

Among many stories, always scientifically precise, I remember when he organized an antimicrobial resistance Symposium (which I also attended) in Santa Domingo,  somewhat because developing countries have especially severe problems with antibiotic overuse and also because his sister lived and worked there. The symposium volume (which Stuart edited and to which I contributed) includes the results of a survey Stuart conducted right after the meeting about staying away from fresh unwashed fruit and veggies! -- and whether we suffered tourista.  Later I was at his celebration as President of the ASM at the Chicago Museum of Science, which featured one of his famous swaps of identity with his brother Jay, also a remarkable microbiologist, a virologist. 

And I remember once at a symposium at Harvard School of Public Health where I was an invited bacterial resistance plasmid speaker and Stuart was asked to introduce me. He gave a brief but pointed lucid lecture advising keeping immune-suppressed hospital patients away from fresh salads, which could be a source of microbes they can't cope with.

I am (again) sad to hear that Stuart has died, and apparently slowly and in a bad way.  He lived a long and good life -- I am 2 years older. I remember today also the much earlier and early slow death of Stuart's NIH mentor Loretta Leive (no relation and spelled differently).

It happens.  To us all.” Simon Silver, Department of Microbiology and Immmunology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago