Born in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 1916, Dr. Jawetz attended the University of Vienna (1937), the Universities of New Hampshire and Massachusetts (1940), and received his PhD from the University of California in microbiology in 1942. Stanford University awarded his MD in 1946.

Subsequently, Dr. Jawetz was a lecturer on bacteriology at the University of California; senior assistant surgeon at NIH, 1946-48. He was professor of microbiology and lecturer in pediatrics at UCSF from 1954 (having been assistant and associate professor, 1948-53). From 1962 to 1978 Dr. Jawetz was chair of the Dept. of Microbiology. He also held posts as Almroth Wright lecturer in London (1952 and 1958), and was visiting professor at the University of Shiraz, Iran, 1977.

Dr. Jawetz is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Society of Microbiology, the Society of Experimental Biology & Medicine, the American Association of Immunology, and the American Academy of Microbiological Research.

His research interests included clinical bacteriology, antibiotics, chemotherapy, infectious diseases, virology. In 1979 he received the School of Medicine Alumni Association's Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Jawetz became professor emeritus in 1984; the following year a library at the entrance to HSE on the 4th floor was named in his honor.