IHV Lifetime Achievement Award

2017 IHV Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Ph.D.

Associate Scientific Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD, Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA, is an infectious diseases epidemiologist whose main research interests are in understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa; factors influencing acquisition of HIV infection in adolescent girls; and sustainable strategies to introduce antiretroviral therapy in resource-constrained settings.

She holds Professorships in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA and in Public Health at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She is also a visiting scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University. Since 1998 she has played a central role in building the science base in southern Africa through the Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme that has trained over 600 scientists in southern Africa.

She was the Principal Investigator of the landmark CAPRISA 004 tenofovir gel trial which provided proof of concept for Microbicides, highlighted by Science as one of the Top 10 scientific breakthroughs in 2010. Professor Abdool Karim’s has over 170 peer reviewed publications and has authored several books and book chapters.

Professor Abdool Karim is currently chair of the South African National AIDS Council Prevention Technical Task Team, a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and Scientific Advisor to the Executive Director of UNAIDS. She is an advisory board member of the Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS), Scientific Advisory Board member of the US President’s Emergency Pan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Chair of the PEPFAR Adolescent Girls and Young Women Expert Working Group, a member of the HIV Centre Strategic Advisory Committee and the NIH OAR Microbicides Planning Group.

She is a Foreign Associate member of the US US National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa, Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). She is currently Vice-President (Southern African Region) of the African Academy of Sciences.

Salim Abdool Karim, MBChB, Ph.D., DSc.

Director and Professor for Global Health Department of Epidemiology, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South  Africa (CAPRISA), Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of KwaZulu-Natal

Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD, DSc (honoris causa) is a clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist widely recognised for his ground-breaking scientific contributions in HIV prevention and treatment. He is Director of CAPRISA - Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa; Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of KwaZulu-Natal; CAPRISA Professor of Global Health at Columbia University, Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Cornell University and Associate Member of The Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.

His contributions to microbicides for HIV prevention spans two decades and culminated in the CAPRISA 004 tenofovir gel trial which provided proof-of-concept that antiretroviral drugs can prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection and herpes simplex virus type 2 in women. He is co-inventor on patents which have been used in several HIV vaccine candidates and his clinical research on TB-HIV treatment has shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients.

He chairs the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and is a member of both the WHO HIV-TB Task Force and the WHO Expert Panel on STIs and HIV. He is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, African Academy of Sciences, Academy of Science in South Africa, Royal Society of South Africa and American Academy of Microbiology. He is a Foreign Associate Member of the US National Academy of Medicine. He serves on the Boards of Lancet-Global Health, Lancet-HIV and the New England Journal of Medicine.

2017 IHV Lifetime Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions

Peter Palese, Ph.D.

Professor & Chair of Microbiology; Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Center of Excellence, Global Virus Network

Dr. Peter Palese is a Professor of Microbiology and Medicine, and the Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research is in the area of RNA-containing viruses with a special emphasis on influenza viruses. He established the first genetic map for influenza A, B, and C viruses, identified the function of several viral genes, and defined the mechanism of neuraminidase inhibitors (which are now FDA-approved antivirals). He was also a pioneer in the field of reverse genetics for negative strand RNA viruses. His laboratory’s research is currently focused on the development of a universal influenza virus vaccine and oncolytic viruses.

Palese is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly IOM), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina). Palese is a recipient of the Robert Koch Prize, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award, the Beijerinck Virology Prize, and the Maurice Hilleman/Merck Award; he has received honorary doctorate degrees from The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and McMaster University.

Dr. Palese serves on the editorial board for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is a former president of the Harvey Society and the American Society for Virology.

Past Awardees

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