A medical doctor — an epidemiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle — Stamm started out studying something most researchers might not find interesting: urinary tract infections.
He discovered how the bacterium chlamydia trachomatis caused pelvic inflammatory disease, and did the first clinical trials of antibiotics to clear up the bacterium, and thus in large part solve PID. “Countless women owe their fertility to Walt Stamm and his colleagues,” said Dr. Martin J. Blaser, who succeeded Stamm as president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr. Stamm died December 14 from melanoma. He was 64.