Whitewater Times

The Watertown Unified School District (WUSD) announced David Neil McMurray, PhD, as the 2025 Distinguished Alumni during their regular monthly board meeting on June 23, 2025. McMurray is a 1960 graduate of Watertown High School.

After high school, McMurray attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering in 1965. He then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Kenya for two years. Upon returning to Madison, he obtained MS and PhD degrees in Medical Microbiology and completed a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at Tulane University's International Center for Medical Research in Cali, Colombia. In 1976, he joined Texas A&M University College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor and became a full Professor by 1991. He was named Regents Professor in 2000 and Professor Emeritus in 2017.

During his tenure at Texas A&M, McMurray taught immunology and microbiology to all medical students who graduated from the College of Medicine over his 41-year career. He received numerous teaching awards and was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators in 2012.

McMurray's research primarily focused on vaccine-induced resistance to tuberculosis (TB), utilizing a guinea pig model for low-dose pulmonary exposure studies. His work attracted over $15 million in extramural grants and contracts, mainly from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One grant continued for 24 years without interruption. Additionally, he collaborated on NIH-funded research examining how long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids affect immune responses for over two decades. His academic contributions include more than 220 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and mentoring nearly 50 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

He also served on editorial boards for several scientific journals related to his expertise areas and participated in NIH study sections and review groups. For three years, he was part of the VA Merit Review Sub-committee for Infectious Diseases.

McMurray acted as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) for ten years, chaired the Immunology of Mycobacteria Steering Committee, and led the Animal Models Task Force. As a Technical Advisor to the US government, he visited Russia multiple times to evaluate US-funded TB research programs and consulted with TB research groups globally.

He contributed to an Expert Panel by the Academy of Sciences of South Africa studying nutritional influences on immunity concerning TB and HIV infection. For two decades, he was involved with the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Panel under the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program, serving as Chair from 2005-2010.

Additionally, McMurray spent ten years on the Board of Directors for Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation which received substantial funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance TB vaccines through development stages into human trials.

David McMurray resides with his wife Lan Ly in College Station, TX. They have four children: Rusty will attend the University of Texas; Christopher runs a business in Manitowish Waters; Marc works in retail sales; Michael is a professor at Colorado Medical School. The couple has six grandchildren.

Since retiring in 2017, McMurray enjoys fishing, reading, traveling, solving puzzles daily while continuing some committee participation and giving occasional lectures or interviews at medical schools annually.