People in the global health news - December 2021

Research!America recognizes NIH leaders

Research!America will present NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins with the John Edward Porter Legacy Award for his outstanding commitment to sustaining the nation's world-class leadership in medical and health research. Collins, who has led the NIH since 2009, has announced he will step down at the end of 2021.

Fogarty Senior Scientist Emeritus Dr. Vivian Pinn will be honored with the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Award. Pinn, the inaugural director of the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, is credited with leading the charge to include women and minorities in clinical trials, and emphasizing the differences associated with sex and gender in formulating and executing research studies.

Henrietta Lacks posthumously recognized by WHO

The WHO has honored the late Henrietta Lacks with a Director-General’s award for her contributions to medical science. During her cancer treatment in 1951, tumor samples were taken without her knowledge and commercialized as the HeLa cell line, which has enabled research advances for diseases including polio, HIV/AIDS and COVID-19.

Fogarty grantee elected to the National Academy of Medicine

Ohio State University scientist Dr. Wondwossen Abebe Gebreyes has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his leadership in molecular epidemiology and global health. The Fogarty grantee was also recognized for his insights into One Health—how animal, agricultural and environmental systems influence public health.

NIH bioinformatics collaborator has died

Bioinformatics authority Dr. Gaston Kuzamunu Mazandu died recently in South Africa. The University of Cape Town scientist was lead developer and senior lecturer for the Sickle Africa Data Coordinating Center supported by NIH and an active member of NIH’s Human Heredity and Health in Africa initiative.

Supercourse founder and researcher is mourned

Longtime NIH grantee Dr. Ronald LaPorte died recently. The University of Pittsburgh professor emeritus was a renowned diabetes researcher who went on to establish the open-access website Supercourse, a collection of public health lectures that has reached about two million scientists and students worldwide, and contains 203,050 lectures in 38 languages.