People in global health news
November/December 2024 | Volume 23 Number 6
Humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo passes
Dikembe Mutombo, a former Fogarty advisory board member, passed away from brain cancer at the age of 58 this October. The African-born NBA player, focused on humanitarian work combatting HIV in Africa, especially in his home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He served on Fogarty's board from 2003-2006.
Fogarty grantee wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
David Baker, PhD, director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on computational protein design. He shares the award with Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind. Fogarty supported Baker for a 2003 project, “Low-resolution structural genomics of nucleases.”
Nichole Starr receives ACS Humanitarian Award
Nichole Starr, MD, MPH, a trauma and critical care surgeon in San Francisco, has been honored with the American College of Surgeons/Pfizer Resident Surgical Volunteerism Award. A former Fogarty Global Health Equity Scholar, Starr implemented Lifebox’s Clean Cut program, enhancing surgical safety and infection prevention in resource-limited settings. Her expertise has supported Ethiopia’s national trauma care initiatives, and her research extends to Brazil and Liberia.
Adane Kebede selected for James Hakim Award
Dr. Adane Kebede, assistant professor at Ethiopia’s University of Gondar, submitted the highest-ranked abstract to the annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and so was selected for the 2025 James G. Hakim Global Health Award. Kebede will receive the award, which provides travel support to CUGH meetings, in person at the CUGH 2025 meeting in February.
Thumbi Ndung’u, Fogarty grantee, elected to NAM
Fogarty Grantee Thumbi Ndung’u, PhD, director of Basic and Translational Science at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine for pioneering the first primary infectious molecular clone of HIV-1 subtype C. Ndung’u, who is a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University College London, leads the first HIV cure trial in Africa.
Chris Beyrer receives Desmond Tutu Award for HIV research
The International AIDS Society has recognized Duke Global Health Institute Director Chris Beyrer, MD, with the Desmond Tutu Award for HIV Prevention Research and Human Rights. The award recognizes the efforts of an individual or an organization that has worked to advance both HIV prevention research and the human rights of people affected by HIV.
NIDA Director awarded the Ralph W. Gerard Prize
The Society for Neuroscience awarded Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience for her contributions to the understanding of the neurobiological basis of drug addiction. Honoring Volkow, the society noted that she pioneered the use of non-invasive human brain imaging to investigate how the use of substances, such as heroin, cocaine, and cannabis, affect brain function.
Updated November 26, 2024
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