Professor Allan D. Bass (1910-2005) was a scientist, an educator, and an administrator; he pioneered pharmacological research on skin sterilizing agents, sulfonamides, hormones, adrenal coricosteroids, anthelmintics and chemical transmitters. At Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) he served as the chair of the Department of Pharmacology for two decades and served as Associate Dean of the medical school from 1973-74.

Dr. Bass was born in Marcus, Iowa on February 12, 1910. He received his B.S. from Simpson College in 1931, and later earned his M.S. and M.D. from VUSM in 1932 and 1939. He then served two years of his residency at Vanderbilt, followed by a one-year fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine in 1942. During World War II he was stationed on the Philippine Islands with the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

After the war Dr. Bass took a position as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Syracuse University School of Medicine, from 1945-1953. He subsequently began his twenty year tenure as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at VUSM from 1953-1973. Later he became the Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences and Acting Dean, VUSM, from 1973-1974. From 1975-1981 Dr. Bass was the Associate Chief of Staff for Education at the Nashville Veteran's Administration Hospital. He was Professor Emeritus in Pharmacology at VUSM from 1975-2005. Dr. Bass also served as a Member of the American Medical Association - Council on Drugs, 1962-72, and as President of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1967-69. Allan Bass died January 14, 2005 in Nashville.