Vermund lands alumni lifetime achievement award
Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, received the Alumni Lifetime Achievement award from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Vermund accepted the award at the school's commencement celebration last month, along with a co-recipient and former classmate Lynne Mofenson, M.D., chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent & Maternal AIDS branch of the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development.
Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D.
Vermund said it was a special pleasure to be recognized by his medical school alumni peers. He said he was surprised to receive word of his own recognition, although he had a little something to do with Mofenson's.
“I am happy to admit to my having nominated Lynne for this award. She and I were in medical school together (class of 1977) along with my wife, Pilar Vargas. Lynne and I both went into pediatrics and later into public health and clinical research. We overlapped at the NIH from 1989-1994 and have been professional colleagues ever since,” Vermund said.
The selection committee wrote that both Vermund and Mofenson were chosen for their research commitments and efforts to serve AIDS patients in socially disenfranchised populations. Mofenson specializes in HIV/AIDS in women and children and pursues international research into the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
Vermund leads numerous HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention projects under way in several countries, including a substantial program in Mozambique, where Vanderbilt University is the lead PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) partner in Zambézia Province, working to support HIV/AIDS care and treatment services in 12 districts and 18 health facilities.
Vermund is also principal investigator responsible for scientific management of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, a worldwide collaborative that researches non-vaccine interventions to prevent the transmission of HIV.