People in the news June 2012

Former Fogarty advisor Dr. Jim Yong Kim to lead World Bank

Former Fogarty Advisory Board member, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, has been selected as the next World Bank president. Kim, a health expert and anthropologist who has spent much of his career working to help those in poverty, begins his five-year post on July 1. He served on the Fogarty board from 2007 until 2009, when he became Dartmouth College president. He was previously on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and chaired WHO's Department of HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim

Dr. Bill Foege

Foege awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

The White House has announced Dr. Bill Foege will be awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his leadership in ending smallpox. Foege is a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and previously led the CDC. The Medal of Freedom is America's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the U.S., to world peace, or other significant endeavors.

Gibbons named new director of NHLBI

Cardiologist Dr. Gary H. Gibbons has been named the new director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. He comes to NIH from the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, where he directed the Cardiovascular Research Institute and chaired the physiology department. His institute is renowned for scientific discoveries related to the cardiovascular health of minority populations. Gibbons graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Gary H. Gibbons

Dr. John Prakash

Prakash leads NEI's international programs

Dr. John Prakash is the new Associate Director for International Program Activities at the NIH's National Eye Institute. With 25 years of experience in global health research and development, Prakash has managed clinical research programs on five continents. Most recently, he was chief operating officer and principal scientist for Amar International. Previously, he led international clinical project teams at Pfizer. He earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biotechnology at UCLA Medical School and CDC, Atlanta, and an MBA in pharmaceutical management and marketing at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Morse to receive Volwiler award

Fogarty grantee Dr. Gene D. Morse will receive the 2012 Volwiler Research Achievement Award, honoring his outstanding research and contributions to clinical/translational pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences. A professor at the University of Buffalo, Morse will receive the award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in July. He received Fogarty funding for his HIV/AIDS work and capacity-building with the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr. Gene D. Morse