Roger Glass - 2012 recipient
Dr. Roger Glass, Associate Director for International Research and Director, Fogarty International Center, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, U.S.A.
A global leader in epidemiology, virology, advocacy and in building research capacity in developing countries, Dr. Glass was named the 2012 award recipient based on his commitment to the health of children throughout the world, his dedication to mentorship, and his outstanding body of work.
Among his many contributions to global child health, Dr. Glass and his group have built a global commitment to use rotavirus vaccines. Today, at least one vaccine has now been licensed in over 80 countries, where evidence of its efficacy is quickly becoming apparent. In Central and South America, for example, the rotavirus vaccination has led to 20-40% reductions in diarrheal deaths as well as hospitalizations in children. This work, alone, has–and will continue to have–an enormous impact on reducing child mortality and morbidity throughout the world.
Dr. Glass graduated from Harvard College in 1967, received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Buenos Aires in 1967, and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1972. He joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1977 as a medical officer assigned to the Environmental Hazards Branch. He received his doctorate from the University of Goteborg, Sweden in 1984, and joined the National Institutes of Health Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, where he worked on the molecular biology of rotavirus. In 1986, Dr. Glass returned to the CDC to become Chief of the Viral Gastroenteritis Unit at the National Center for Infectious Diseases. He was appointed to his current role in March of 2006.
Dr. Glass has co-authored more than 500 research papers and chapters. He is fluent and often lectures in five languages.
The award was presented to Dr. Glass at the PGPR symposium on the global crisis of childhood diarrhea, held April 30, 2012, within the Pediatric Academic Societies’ Annual Meeting in Boston, USA.
