People in global health news

November/December 2025 | Volume 24 Number 6

 

Dieffenbach joins Fogarty as a senior advisor

Carl Dieffenbach, PhD, has joined Fogarty International Center as senior advisor to the director. Previously, Dieffenbach served as director of the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he oversaw a global HIV/AIDS research portfolio of more than $1 billion. In 1984, he earned a PhD in biophysics (with a focus on virology, specifically human responses to viruses including the production of interferon and interferon-induced genes) from Johns Hopkins University. Following completion of his postdoctoral research at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, he was promoted to assistant professor and his lab worked on flu, coronavirus, and HIV. In 1992, he joined DAIDS as the chief of the preclinical therapeutics group. There he spearheaded initiatives that accelerated the progress of basic research on HIV pathogenesis and directly resulted in new clinical studies of novel AIDS therapies. In 1996 he was promoted to director of the DAIDS Basic Sciences Program, and in 2008 he earned a promotion to division director. Under his leadership, DAIDS-funded research played a crucial role in the development of antiretroviral therapies and long-acting formulations for the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

 

Binagwaho receives Cameron Award for Population Health

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland University of Medicine and Health Sciences has presented the Cameron Award for Population Health to Agnes Binagwaho, MD, PhD, professor at, and co-founder and former Vice Chancellor of, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. The Cameron Award for Population Health recognizes leaders who have made outstanding contributions to public health. Binagwaho, a pediatrician, returned to Rwanda in 1996 following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and helped rebuild the country’s health system. Between 2002 and 2011, she served in senior government positions, including executive secretary of the National AIDS Control Commission and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health. In 2011, she was appointed Minister of Health, serving five years in this position. Under her leadership, the Rwandan Ministry of Health responded to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases by expanding screenings, increasing follow-up services, and enhancing palliative care. Binagwaho, who has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, holds academic appointments at Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

 

Heimburger, former Fogarty Advisory Board member, retires

Douglas Heimburger, MD, has retired from his position as professor emeritus in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Epidemiology. Heimburger served on Fogarty’s Advisory Board from 2004 to 2008, and from 2009 to 2012 he co-led the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows program, a discontinued program for doctoral students. He led the Vanderbilt-Emory-Cornell-Duke Global Health Fellowship Consortium, part of Fogarty’s Fellows & Scholars/Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program. He also served as principal investigator for the HIV-NCD Research Program, an ongoing University of Zambia-Vanderbilt Training Partnership grant that has been providing research educational opportunities for global health scientists since 1998. Heimburger directed the NIH-funded Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program within the Departments of Nutrition Sciences and Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for 20 years and then joined Vanderbilt in 2009. There Heimburger served for 10 years as associate director for education and training, helping to create research training opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees at both Vanderbilt and low- and middle-income countries. Heimburger’s research interests focused on nutritional influences on HIV treatment outcomes and HIV’s intersection with noncommunicable conditions among African adults, as well as global health research education and training. During a sabbatical in Zambia in 2006, he conducted clinical nutrition research, supported by a Fulbright Scholar Award, among undernourished Zambians who are starting antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS.

 

Dheda wins the Princess Chichibu Memorial TB Global Award

Keertan Dheda, PhD, received the 2025 Princess Chichibu Memorial TB Global Award for outstanding scientific contributions to anti-tuberculosis activities. This award is presented annually in memory of Princess Chichibu of Japan by the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association. Dheda is a professor of mycobacteriology and global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he holds a joint appointment at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he is the director of the Centre for Lung Infection and Immunity. Dheda, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grantee, has published a series of seminal papers on the epidemiology, transmission, and management of drug-resistant TB. He’s contributed to capacity building in low- and middle- income countries with global health programs at New York University (NYU) and South Western Medical School in Dallas. He serves in an editorial advisory capacity at several journals, including top-ranked Lancet Respiratory Medicine and The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine. The Princess Chichibu Memorial TB Global Award also recognizes his role as a global research leader.

 

Sears receives Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) honored Cynthia Sears, MD, with the Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement. Sears is a professor of medicine and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her many scientific discoveries have helped to describe how microbial communities residing in the gut influence immune responses that promote tumor development. Sears’ foundational work in understanding the microbiome's role in cancer is critical to identifying biomarkers that can forecast cancer risk and may also lead to the development of therapeutic strategies tailored to an individual's microbial makeup for more personalized treatment. Her research has received support from several institutes at NIH, including the National Cancer Institute. From 2004 to 2007, Sears served on the board of IDSA, next she served as the society’s treasurer from 2010 to 2015, and in 2019 she led IDSA as president. Since 2022, she’s been editor-in-chief of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The Alexander Fleming Awards ranks among the most prestigious awards in the field of infectious diseases.

 

American Pediatric Society honors Gelb

Bruce D. Gelb, MD, is the recipient of the 2026 American Pediatric Society John Howland Award. The society bestowed its highest honor on Gelb in recognition of his contributions to advancing child health and the field of pediatrics. Gelb, a long-standing NIH awardee who has received grants from several institutes over the past 35 years, serves as a pediatric cardiologist and geneticist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has characterized the genetic causes of congenital heart disease (CHD) and related disorders and has helped establish the molecular foundations of CHD. His identification of the first genetic cause of Noonan syndrome paved the way for understanding a broader group of developmental conditions known as the RASopathies, and so shaped how physicians diagnose, predict, and treat these disorders. Gelb’s leadership of national academic medical organizations includes his serving on the American Pediatric Society Council (including one term as President) from 2012 to 2020. Most recently, Gelb helmed the American Society of Human Genetics. He is founding director of the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute at Icahn. Under his leadership, the institute has expanded major initiatives in clinical research, health services, and artificial intelligence.

 

Happi’s Sentinel project receives MacArthur Foundation award

The MacArthur Foundation is awarding $100 million to a private pandemic prevention network across Africa, a joint effort co-led by Pardis Sabeti, MD, PhD, of the Broad Institute and Christian Happi, PhD, of the Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. Sentinel, which has trained more than 3,000 public health workers from 53 of Africa’s 54 countries, builds directly on research conducted by Happi and supported by Fogarty and NIH through The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program and the Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) Initiative. The MacArthur award will help expand Sentinel’s geographic reach over the next five years, creating a stronger system capable of alerting local communities — and the world — to previously undetected diseases. During his research career, which began at Harvard, Happi investigated human infectious disease genomics and focused on host-pathogen interactions. In 2013, he helped establish the Institute of Genomics and Global Health (formerly known as African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease) with funding from the NIH and the World Bank. The early diagnosis and confirmation—within 6 hours—of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria during the Western Africa Ebola epidemic of 2013-2016 ranks among his most outstanding achievements and helped prevent the spread of deadly illness.

 

Tarini tapped for Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award

The American Pediatric Society (APS) named Beth A. Tarini, MD, the 2025 Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award recipient for her contributions to pediatric science. Tarini serves as the Richard L. and Agnes F. Hudson Chair in Health Services Research and professor of pediatrics at George Washington University and Children’s National Hospital. Tarini’s clinical and research interests focus on genetic testing in pediatric care, including delivery of care following positive newborn screenings. In addition to her teaching, she holds several leadership roles at her current institutions, including co-director of the Center for Translational Research, director of Resident Research at Children’s National, and director of academic development at the Goldberg Center for Community Pediatric Health. Tarini is a principal investigator on several Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grants as well as one from National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Updated December 12, 2025

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