Dr. Kenneth I. Berns

Dr. Kenneth I. Berns, 85, died Friday, January 26, 2024, in Gainesville, Florida. He was buried at Prairie Creek in a simple green service. A Celebration of Life will be held on March 8, 2024, at 2:00 pm at Oak Hammock. After attending Harvard as an undergraduate, he earned his Ph.D. and MD from Johns Hopkins University. His early career focused on basic research in virology, specifically on the genetic structure of adeno-associated viruses (AAV), which years later, through efforts by himself and others at the University of Florida, became the gold standard for vectors employed in gene therapy. After serving as a Staff Fellow and US Public Health Services officer at National Institute of Health in Washington, he returned to Johns Hopkins as a faculty member in the microbiology department at the medical school. He then moved to the University of Florida, as Chair of the Department of Immunology and Medical Microbiology. After a sabbatical in Rehovot, Israel, he became the Chair of the Microbiology Department at Cornell Medical School in New York City. Fourteen years later he returned to the University of Florida as Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice-President of the Health Sciences Center, where he played a pivotal role in fostering biomedical research. His final position before his retirement was as head of the Genetics Institute at the University of Florida. His greatest satisfaction came from helping others to make discoveries in science. Dr. Berns served on numerous national committees both before and after his retirement, including the National Science Advisory Committee for Biosecurity. He was elected to the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine and became a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida. Although his career was punctuated with numerous honors, it was his friendships that he valued most. Dr. Berns is survived by his wife, Laura Berns, and his sister, Karen Newborn, as well as by his son Jonathan Berns, his daughter Deborah Lingwood, and his two granddaughters Cassandra and Alexandra Berns. Instead of flowers, please send a donation in his memory to the Oak Hammock Scholarship Fund, the Harn Museum of Art, or the Ken Berns Graduate Student Opportunity Fund in Medical Genetics and Microbiology at UF.