Adolfo Lutz was a Brazilian physician, 1855-1940, father of tropical medicine and medical zoology in Brazil, and a pioneer epidemiologist and researcher in infectious diseases.

Lutz was born in Rio de Janeiro, on December 18, 1855, to a family of Swiss origin. He studied medicine in Switzerland, graduating in 1879 at the University of Bern. After graduation he went on to study experimental medicine techniques in London, England (where he studied with Joseph Lister, 1827-1912), Leipzig, Germany, Vienna, Austria, Prague and Paris, France (where he studied with Louis Pasteur, 1822-1895).

Upon his return to Brazil in 1881, Lutz initially worked as a general clinician in the small city of Limeira, state of São Paulo for 6 years. Wishing to pursue medical research, he returned to Hamburg, Germany once again, to work with Paul Gerson Unna (1850-1929), specializing in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. As a result of his increasing fame, he was invited to the post of director of Kalihi Hospital, in Hawaii, where he carried out research on leprosy. Following this, he worked for a while in California, USA, before returning in 1892 to Brazil, attending an invitation from the government of the state of São Paulo to direct the Bacteriological Institute (later renamed in his honor to Instituto Adolfo Lutz, still in existence today in the city of São Paulo. The city of Santos was undergoing a severe epidemic of bubonic plague and Lutz went to work on it together with two other young physicians who would become luminaries of Brazilian medicine, Emílio Ribas and Vital Brazil. Vital Brazil and Lutz became friends, and Lutz supported Vital Brazil's pioneering research on antivenoms for snake bites, contributing decisively for the creation of another research institution in São Paulo, exclusively devoted to ophydism, the Instituto Butantan. This serology institute hosted a plant for producing vaccines and antisera against several diseases, such as smallpox and plague.

Coordinates: 21°14′08″S 49°38′38″W / 21.23556°S 49.64389°W / -21.23556; -49.64389

Adolfo is a Brazilian city located in the interior of the state of São Paulo in the region (região) of São José do Rio Preto.