Iris Long, Scientific Mentor to AIDS Activists, Dies at 92

A chemist, she lent her expertise in drug research to ACT UP, an organization known for its street protests, and helped accelerate the approval of H.I.V. and AIDS treatments.


Iris Long in 2013. When she first attended an ACT UP meeting in 1987, she didn’t know anyone with AIDS, but “the epidemic was getting so bad, and she thought she could help,” one activist said. “We were a bunch of downtown queers, and she came from a background that was totally different from us.” Edward Linsmier

By Richard Sandomir
April 17, 2026

Iris Long, a chemist whose knowledge of the intricacies of pharmaceutical clinical trials and the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process made her a transformational figure in ACT UP, the militant political action group dedicated to ending the AIDS crisis, died on April 4 in Astoria, Queens. She was 92. ... Michael Long, her husband of 55 years and only immediate survivor, confirmed her death, at a rehabilitation center. She lived in Astoria.

By 1987, when Dr. Long first attended a meeting of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, she had retired from her work as an organic chemist. She was looking to help people directly, rather than in a laboratory. She was not politically active, didn’t know anyone with AIDS and wasn’t even sure she had ever met anyone who was gay.

“God, the epidemic was getting so bad, and she thought she could help,” Jim Eigo, a writer and leading ACT UP member who worked closely with Dr. Long, said in an interview. “We were a bunch of downtown queers, and she came from a background that was totally different from us. She brought her love to us.”

At that first meeting, Dr. Long realized that the activists needed a guide who was fluent in science to help them expedite the approval of drugs to treat AIDS and the H.I.V. virus that causes it. ... “She was their scientific North Star,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. “She told them that if you’re going to interact with the scientific community, you’re going to have to understand the science.”

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Glamour magazine named Dr. Long one of the 12 most inspiring women of 1989. Edward Linsmier

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.

Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades.