People in the news December 2010

Black to receive Prince Mahidol Award

Fogarty advisory board member and longtime grantee, Dr. Bob Black, has been named a winner of the Prince Mahidol Award for 2011, in recognition of his zinc supplementation studies. Black is professor and chair of the international health department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. The award honors Prince Mahidol, known as the father of modern medicine and public health in Thailand. Black’s long-standing works on the importance of childhood nutrition significantly contribute to the wide application of zinc supplementation.The World Health Organization and UNICEF currently recommend that all childhood diarrhea cases should be treated with zinc supplement as well as oral rehydration. The program has been implemented in more than 40 countries around the world.

Dr. Bob Black

Dr. Marcelino Gutiérrez-Guevara

Panama researchers receive recognition

Fogarty investigator and former trainee Dr. Marcelino Gutiérrez-Guevara (shown left) and colleagues at Panama’s Institute of Advanced Scientific Investigations and High Technology Services (INDICASAT) have won a $100,000 grant from the International Development Bank (IDB) to study fungal infection resistance in frogs. INDICASAT is a partner on an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group grant, a program administered by Fogarty. Dr. Gutierrez also recently received the Panama science academy’s young investigator award. In addition, his colleague and also an investigator on the biodiversity grant, Dr. Carmenza Spadafora, has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the IDB to develop a bioassay and mouse model for dengue.

Fogarty’s Rosenthal wins Fulbright

Fogarty’s Dr. Joshua Rosenthal, deputy director of the international research and training division, has won a Fulbright Scholar award to Argentina. Rosenthal will spend the next six months teaching and conducting policy research on global environmental health at the University of Buenos Aires.

Photo by Jeff Gray

Dr. Joshua Rosenthal

Photo courtesy
of the Australian
government

Dr. Frank Fenner

Smallpox scientist dies

Former Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Frank Fenner has died at age 95. The Australian immunologist played a key role in smallpox eradication and control of the 1950s rabbit virus plague. Fenner came to NIH for three stints as a Fogarty Scholar in the 1970s and early 80s.  He received the Australian Prime Minister’s 2002 Science Prize.