People in the news - September 2015

Pioneer AIDS researcher, NIH grantee, dies

Dr. Suniti Solomon, who documented the first evidence of HIV infection in India, has died. She pioneered HIV/AIDS research and treatment in her country and established the YRGCARE organization. She led many NIH-funded HIV studies and was a Fogarty grantee and mentor in the Center’s research training programs.

Dr. Suniti Solomon

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan

NIH collaborator is new head of key Indian agencies

Global tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS researcher, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, has been named Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research and Secretary of India’s Department of Health Research. She has led NIH-funded studies and received research training through Fogarty programs.

Guttmacher to retire from NIH

After more than five years leading NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Dr. Alan E. Guttmacher will retire in October. A pediatrician and medical geneticist, he joined the National Human Genome Research Institute in 1999 and ascended to Deputy Director.

Dr. Alan E. Guttmacher

Dr. William T. Riley

NIH names Riley to head behavioral sciences office

Dr. William T. Riley has been named Director of the NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. He has served as Acting Director since May 2014, after holding posts in three other Institutes. He is a clinical psychologist by training and taught prior to joining NIH in 2005.

American Cancer Society honors Fogarty grantee

Dr. Jonathan M. Samet, of the University of Southern California, has been awarded the American Cancer Society’s 2015 Luther L. Terry Distinguished Career Award, in recognition of his achievements in tobacco control. He has received numerous NIH grants, including from Fogarty’s tobacco cessation research program.

Dr. Jonathan M. Samet

Dr. Linda B. Cottler

Fogarty grantee is chosen for epidemiology award

Dr. Linda B. Cottler, of the University of Florida, has been selected for the American College of Epidemiology’s 2015 Special Award for Outstanding Contributions through Systemic Epidemiologic Approaches to Improving Health. She is a longtime NIH grantee, and has received Fogarty awards for research training in India.