Sir Marc Armand Ruffer (1859–1917) was an Anglo-German experimental pathologist and bacteriologist; he is considered a pioneer of modern paleopathology.
Born in 1859 in Lyon, France, Ruffer, was the son of German banker Baron Alphonse Jacques Ruffer and his wife Caroline.
He studied at Brasenose Oxford, University College, London and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 1891 Ruffer was appointed the first director of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine, today's Lister Institute. Moving to Egypt for health reasons Ruffer was appointed a professor of bacteriology at the Cairo Medical School in 1896, later taking roles on committees dealing with health, disease, and sanitation. It was in Egypt that Ruffer worked on the histology of mummies publishing his findings and helping to establish the field of palaeopathology. Knighted in 1916 he went to Greece during the First World War to improve sanitation. Returning to Egypt onboard the ship Arcadian on 15th April 1917 he was lost at sea when the ship was torpedoed off the Greek coast without warning by German submarine UC74 with the loss of 279 lives. Ruffer married Alice Mary Greenfield in 1890 and had three children.