DR. ANTHONY S. FAUCI
2011 WRI’S ANNUAL PRIZE FOR LUNG RESEARCH RECIPIENT
In 1968, Dr. Fauci came to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation (LCI) in NIAID. In 1974, he became Head of the Clinical Physiology Section, LCI, and in 1980 was appointed Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation, a position he still holds. In 1984, Dr. Fauci became Director of NIAID, where he oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illnesses, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, illness from potential agents of bioterrorism, tuberculosis, malaria, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.
Dr. Fauci has made many contributions to basic and clinical research on the pathogenesis and treatment of immune-mediated diseases. He has been a leader in the field of human immunoregulation by making a number of basic scientific observations that serve as the basis for current understanding of the regulation of the human immune response. He has developed therapies for formerly fatal diseases such as polyarteritis nodosa, Wegener’s granulomatosis, and lymphomatoid granulomatosis. In a 1985 Stanford University Arthritis Center Survey of the American Rheumatism Association membership ranked the work of Fauci on the treatment of polyarteritis nodosa and Wegener’s granulomatosis as one of the most important advances in patient management in rheumatology over the previous 20 years.
Dr. Fauci has made influential contributions to the understanding of how HIV destroys the body’s defenses leading to the progression to AIDS. Fauci has played an important role in developing strategies for the therapy and immune reconstitution of patients with this disease, as well as for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection.
In 2003, an Institute for Scientific Information study indicated that in the twenty year period from 1983 to 2002, Fauci was the 13th most-cited scientist among the 2.5 to 3 million authors in all disciplines throughout the world who published articles in scientific journals during that time frame. Fauci was the ninth most-cited scientist in the field of immunology in the period from January 1993 to June 30, 2003. Fauci has been a visiting professor at many medical centers throughout the country and has given many lectures across the globe. He has received 30 honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Fauci has been nominated by the National Institutes of Health to be one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival’s Nifty Fifty Speakers who will speak about his work and career to middle and high schools students. He has been awarded the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2007 Lasker Award, and the 2002 Albany Medical Center Prize.