Harvey Milton Patt was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 2, 1918. He majored in physiology at the University of Chicago, receiving a B.S. in 1939 and a Ph.D. in 1942. During World War II he worked as a civilian on a chemical toxicity program at the University of Chicago, and as a naval officer [lieutenant (J.G.), USNR] on applied physiology problems at the Medical Field Research Laboratory, Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. He was on the staff of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1946 to 1964, where his studies of radiation exposure led to the 1949 discovery that certain chemicals could protect higher organisms from radiation effects. In 1964 he joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, as professor of radiology and physiology and director of the Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health. That same year he received the Ernest O. Lawrence Award of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission for his work at Argonne.

In 1950 Dr. Patt served as executive secretary of the National Academy of Sciences Symposium on Radiobiology at Oberlin, where he and a small group of researchers conceived the idea of the Radiation Research Society; he served as its first treasurer, from 1952-1955, and as its president in 1960. Dr. Patt was secretary general of the first International Congress of Radiation Research in 1958. From 1962 until 1970 he held the post of scientific secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission's Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine. He also served on committees of the National Research Council and National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Patt died on November 4, 1982.