Harvey Weiss

Dr. Harvey J. Weiss received his AB from Harvard in 1951 and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1955. He has had a long career at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. From 1996-1999, he was a member of the Committee on Appointments and Promotion (COAP), serving as Chairman in his final year.

He retired in 1999 and is now Professor Emeritus of Medicine. From 1969-1996, he was the Director of the Division of Hematology-Oncology, first at Roosevelt Hospital, and later at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. From 1980-1986, he served on the Subcommittee for Certification in Hematology of the American Board of Internal Medicine. The recipient of numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Weiss’s research focused on basic mechanisms involved in the arrest of bleeding at sites of injured blood vessels, and in the formation of dangerous intravascular thrombi.

Among his major contributions were the first reports that aspirin inhibited platelet aggregation and thrombus formation in experimental models. These observations form the basis for its current use in preventing heart attacks and strokes. He and his colleagues were the first to describe the two major functions of von Willebrand factor, specifically its role in promoting the deposition of platelets at sites of blood vessel injury, and as the carrier protein for Factor VIII in plasma that protects it from proteolysis. For these and other studies that included elucidation of the platelet defects in patients with previously undiagnosed bleeding disorders, Dr. Weiss was elected to membership in the American Society on Clinical Investigation in 1970, and to the Association of American Physicians in 1977. In 1994, he was awarded a Distinguished Career Award from the International Society on Thrombosis & Haemostasis.

Last updated June 15, 2020