Honorary Fellowships announced for 2003
|
PRESS RELEASE - 6 February 2003Four new Honorary Fellows will be announced at a Diploma Presentation Ceremony, due take place on Saturday 15 February at the Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1. Dr Tore Godal, Director, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization; Professor Sally McIntyre, Director, MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit; Professor Robin Weiss, Professor of Viral Oncology, University College, London; and Professor Amartya Sen, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge, will all receive their awards at the ceremony, which will be followed by lunch at the nearby London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Keppel Street building. The Donald Reid medal will also be presented to Professor Peter Smith in recognition of his outstanding contributions to epidemiology. The ceremony will run from 11.30 am until 1.00 pm. If you would like to attend in a media capacity, or send a photographer, please contact the School's Press Office on 020 7927 2073. Ends.
'Amartya Kumar Sen has had a profound influence on economic ideas and their application for half a century. Just as Statistics is where mathematics and philosophy meet, so Sen is where economics and philosophy meet, but this meeting is also where the development of ideas impacts directly on guidance for policy and practice. He demonstrates that there is nothing as practical as good theory, and that thinking clearly and rigorously is the best way to solve hard problems. His work has injected added life into welfare economics, and has had profound effects on applications to issues of poverty and equity'. Professor Peter Smith is proposing Tore Godal. He comments: 'Tore Godal has been an inspirational leader in two of the most important initiatives in recent decades to improve the health of those in the poorest countries. His leadership of the Tropical Diseases Research (TDR) programme of WHO from 1986 to 1998 did much to enhance research effort on some of the world's most serious but neglected diseases and his subsequent involvement in the creation and leadership of the Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunisation has greatly strengthened the capacity of those in developing countries to deliver high priority vaccines of enormous public health impact. His capacity to embrace new ideas and different ways of approaching problems has earned him international respect and admiration. It is hard to think of a more worthy recipient of the award of a Fellowship of the School'. Professor Polly Roy is proposing Robin Weiss of the Wohl Virion Centre, Dept of Immunology & Molecular Pathology, University College London. She comments: 'Professor Weiss is a world-renowned virologist who, in addition to research in fundamental and molecular virology, has maintained a close interest in the epidemiological aspects of diseases caused by viruses. He has collaborated actively in field-based epidemiological studies, most recently with Dr Valerie Beral on studies of HHV8 and Kaposi's Sarcoma in Uganda. He is also a clear voice in high profile yet sensitive issues in medical ethics and international affairs, notably on AIDS/HIV treatment and policy and, more recently, on the safety of xenotransplantation. He has served on a number of national and international committees and has unqualified support amongst his peers. 'In teaching, Professor Weiss is already a visiting Professor at the School and has taught on our Virology MSc course for the last 20 years after being invited to do so by Professor Arie Zuckerman soon after human retroviruses were discovered. He also contributes to the Medical Microbiology, HIV/AIDS and Epidemiology modules of the School's teaching programmes. Each year two to three MSc students from the school conduct research projects in his laboratory at UCL. This year the students were Cornelie (Kosha) Tuijn, Teresa Cutino-Moguel and Jane Rasaiyaah. 'Professor Weiss has helped the School in other ways. For example, he has advised on the development of virological activities in the School and, in particular, played an important role in filling the Chair of Virology. When he delivered the Royal Society's Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 2001 he elected to present it at the School where it drew a capacity audience that overfilled both the Goldsmith and Manson lecture theatres. His unrivalled scholarship, esteem, capacity to engage and willingness to help wherever possible make him an outstanding nomination for an LSHTM fellowship which, I am sure, he will both appreciate and return in kind'. Professor Andy Haines is proposing Professor Sally MacIntyre. He comments: 'As a leading medical sociologist with an international reputation in her field she has helped to raise awareness on the importance of sociological factors in health and of thorough research to inform possible interventions. Her early research focused on sociological aspects of pregnancy and childbirth and in recent years she has worked primarily on the effects of social factors such as class, ethnic origin, education and employment in health-related behaviours such as smoking, diet and exercise. 'She joined the Medical Research Council in 1975 as was Director of the Medical Sociology unit from 1983 to 1998. In 1998, she became Director of the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, a post still currently held. Under her Directorship this unit gained international recognition for the excellence of its research on the social causes and consequences of ill health and contributed widely to the understanding of risk behaviours related to HIV and other aspects of sexual health. 'Professor MacIntyre's own work has major potential to inform the development and evaluation of public policy in both the social and medical fields. She has served on many UK and Scottish research committees and has widespread teaching experience lecturing and tutoring students on Social Policy, Health Services and Sex Education. She has been an external examiner for Masters and doctoral degree theses at many universities throughout the UK and presently supervises PhD students at the University of Glasgow. Professor MacIntyre was awarded an OBE in the 1998 New Year's Honour's List and would be a worthy recipient of the Honorary Fellowship'. Professor Paul Fine is proposing Peter Smith for the Donald Reid medal. He comments: 'Professor Peter Smith comes as close as one gets to the complete epidemiologist.
Few practitioners of the art and science of epidemiology have made so
many important contributions to so many different facets of our understanding,
and ability to control, disease in populations. In Peter's case these
have ranged, over the past 40 years, from theoretical contributions
to the statistical analysis of space time clustering to the very practical
textbook entitled "Methods for field trials of interventions against
tropical diseases", known the world over by its more earthy title
- "The Toolbox". They have ranged from studies of the effects
of ionizing radiation on cancer in the UK, to a wide variety of analytical
studies and important intervention trials for the control of infectious
and nutritional diseases in tropical settings. He has also been an extraordinarily
effective and inspirational leader at all levels - within the School
of Hygiene, as Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Population
Sciences and more recently of the Department of Infectious and Tropical
Diseases - and on the national and international stage, as participant
and chair of numerous MRC, PHLS and WHO committees, including, importantly,
as Chair of the UK government's Spongiform Encephalophathy Advisory
Committee, or SEAC, for which work, along with his contributions to
tropical disease research, he was recently awarded a CBE. For a medal
whose citation reads "for outstanding contributions to epidemiology"
there is no more fitting recipient than Peter Smith'. |
|