Marcolino Gomes Candau

Candau, Marcolino Gomes 

Born May 30, 1911, in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian physician and public health leader; foreign member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1968); doctor of medicine (1963) and doctor of juridical sciences (1963).

Candau studied medicine at the school of medicine of the state of Rio de Janeiro, at the University of Brazil, and at Johns Hopkins University, USA. He worked in the Brazilian public health service from 1934 to 1950, when he joined the World Health Organization (WHO); he became its director general in 1953. Candau has written on the problems of malaria, parasitology, biostatistics, and rural hygiene and on questions of public health administration. He is an honorary member and honorary doctor of numerous academies, universities, and medical associations throughout the world.