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 On March 27, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., was named the winner of the $500,000
Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. He received
the award in recognition of his efforts to develop effective therapies
for AIDS as well as other diseases affecting the immune system. Fauci was
also honored for his overall contributions to the advancement of science
and for his distinguished public service.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases in Bethesda, Md., since 1984, he began working at
the center in 1968. During the first five years of his tenure,
Fauci developed effective therapies for treating several
rheumatic diseases. Beginning in 1981, he focused his attention
on the AIDS epidemic, spearheading research on the effect
of HIV, the AIDS virus, on the immune system, and working
to develop effective therapies and a vaccine to combat the
disease. Following the anthrax attack last fall, he appeared
with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G.
Thompson as a government spokesperson on the disease and
other bioterrorist health threats.
Fauci received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical
College in 1966. He and his wife, Christine, have three daughters,
ages 15, 13 and 10.
The Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical
Research was established by New York City-based philanthropist
and Troy, N.Y., native Morris Silverman, who, in 2000, pledged
$50 million to the medical center to endow the prize for
a century. Created “as part of a new and significant
effort to encourage and recognize extraordinary and sustained
contributions to improving health care and promoting innovative
biomedical research,” the Albany Prize is the largest
award in medicine offered in the United States and the next
largest internationally, second to Sweden’s Nobel Prize.
Fauci received the prize at the April 17 award event held
at Franklin Plaza in Troy, N.Y.
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