Hans Weill, 80

Hans Weill, 80, of Flat Rock died Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, at the Elizabeth House.

Dr. Weill, professor emeritus at Tulane University School of Medicine and internationally lauded expert on occupational lung disease, authored more than 200 publications and numerous book chapters on the lung effects of various occupational exposures. He was also president of the American Thoracic Society.

He died on Wednesday at age 80 in Flat Rock.

Dr. Weill received his B.A. and M.D. from Tulane University. His training included an internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and a residency in internal medicine at Charity Hospital and Fellowship in Pulmonary Diseases at Tulane.

From 1962 to 1997, he was on the Tulane Medical School faculty. His most recent full-time position was Professor of Medicine, Chief of Environmental Medicine and the Schlieder Foundation Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the Tulane University Medical Center. From 1989-1993, Dr. Weill served as the founding director of the Tulane University Center for Bioenvironmental Research. Until 1997, he directed an interdisciplinary research program in occupational lung diseases and for over 30 years investigated the respiratory effects of workplace exposure to airborne inhalants.

During the years 1972 to 1992, he was director of the Specialized Center for Research funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH for the investigation of occupational lung diseases. From 1992 to 1996, he was principal investigator of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Basic Research Program involving a number of environmental projects throughout Tulane University. These were both large, multi-project, interdisciplinary research programs funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Weill also consulted with U.S. federal agencies, foreign governments and in the private sector on occupational and environmental pulmonary problems. He was a consultant to the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva on potential lung injuries caused by the 1991 burning oil fires in Kuwait. In 1983-1984, he was a Fellow in Science and Public Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., focusing on the use of scientific data in asbestos-associated diseases in the formulation of public policy.

He retired from the active full-time faculty in 1997 and was subsequently Professor Emeritus at Tulane. After residing many years in New Orleans, Dr. Weill most recently lived in North Carolina.

Dr. Weill is survived by his wife Kathleen; daughters, Judith Weill of San Antonio, Texas and Leslie Ehret of New Orleans; his son Dr. David Weill of Palo Alto, Calif.; his brother Peter Weill of Sarasota, Fla.; as well as three grandchildren, Kathleen Ehret, Hannah and Ava Weill.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Tulane Medical School in his honor.

An online register book is available for family and friends by visiting www.thosshepherd.com.

Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors and Cremation Memorial Center is in charge of arrangements.