Research!America Honors Fogarty’s Glass
Photo: Research!America
FIC director Dr. Roger Glass received the 2018 Geoffrey Beene Builders of Science Award for his research and advocacy efforts in global health during Research!America’s annual honors dinner on Mar. 14.
Glass was cited for his leadership of NIH efforts to transform African medical education, establish research training programs in West African countries that saw widespread Ebola infection, expand Fogarty’s Scholars and Fellows program for early-career scientists and help found the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases. He was also recognized for his research on rotavirus, norovirus and cholera, and the recent WHO approval of a new low-cost rotavirus vaccine he helped develop over the last three decades.
The award was presented by Mara Hutton, vice president of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation, which was established to honor the late fashion designer and to support research in cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Hutton noted that Fogarty is the most leveraged organization at NIH, with nearly 90 percent of its grants receiving co-funding from other institutes or centers. She thanked Glass for his commitment to improving the health of the world’s most vulnerable people.
“He has a conscience for doing the right thing,” she said. “He has empathy, tenacity and his leadership reflects the best in the American scientific research community.”
Accepting the award, Glass acknowledged NIH director Dr. Francis Collins and other NIH leaders in the audience for their support of Fogarty’s cross-cutting global health research and training programs.
“They have all been involved in investments in global health science and this is the most creative, dedicated group of scientists the nation has ever seen,” Glass said. “Together they are directing the largest biomedical enterprise in the world that makes discoveries that change our lives and improve the health of people everywhere.”