People in the global health news - December 2019

Dr. Christos Christou elected president of MSF

Dr. Christos Christou recently began his tenure as the new international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Christou, who has a background in general and emergency surgery, joined MSF in 2002. He was previously general secretary, vice president and president of the MSF Greece Board of Directors.

Photo by Isabel Corthier/Médecins Sans Frontières

NIH leader Bianchi receives international award

The International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis has awarded its 2019 Pioneer Award to Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The award recognizes transformational research in prenatal diagnosis, society leadership and mentorship. Dr. Bianchi has been NICHD director since 2016.

Nobel Prize awarded for global poverty efforts

Two NIH grantees received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

Dr. Esther Duflo, a professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has received NIH grants to study women’s empowerment, maternal and child health, anemia and other health issues in poor countries.

Fellow honoree Dr. Michael Kremer, a professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, has received NIH funding to study ways to improve education - such as school choice and preschool programs that better prepare children to learn.

The pair shared this honor with MIT economics professor Dr. Abhijit Banerjee, co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a global research center working to reduce poverty. He is past president of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, which encourages research and scholarship in development economics.

• The prize in economic sciences 2019
  The Nobel Prize press release, October 14, 2019

Photos of Drs. Duflo and Banerjee by Bryce Vickmark

Vaccine work recognized by ASTMH

Former Fogarty advisory board member Dr. Peter J. Hotez was honored by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for promoting vaccines and refuting the anti-vaccine movement. He also gave a lecture entitled, "Vaccine and Neglected Tropical Disease: Diplomacy in our Anthropocene Epoch," during ASTMH’s annual meeting in November.

Photo courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine

Fogarty MEPI fellow wins TB-HIV award

A junior faculty fellow in Fogarty’s Medical Education Partnership Initiative, Dr. Christine Sekaggya-Wiltshire has won the Stephen Lawn TB-HIV Research Leadership Prize. Sekaggya-Wiltshire leads the TB-HIV clinic at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Her work was featured in a recent Lancet article.

• Christine Sekaggya-Wiltshire: prizewinner in HIV-tuberculosis research
  The Lancet, March 19, 2019

Photo courtesy of The Lancet