Farewell to Dr. Steffanie Strathdee

[NB: The text of this article has been updated since this newsletter was first published.]

Dr. Steffanie Strathdee has left us to work in the United States.

Dr. Strathdee had been the director of the Vanguard Project since its inception in 1994, as well as being responsible for two other epidemiological studies at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS: VIDUS (Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study) and the VLAS (Vancouver Lymphadenopathy-AIDS Study).

In 1998 Dr. Strathdee accepted an academic position at the School of Hygiene & Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she will continue to conduct HIV research in marginalized populations.

In her five years in Vancouver, Dr. Strathdee won the Young Investigators Award at the XI International Conference on AIDS, received a National Health Scholarship from Health Canada's National Health Research & Development Program, was named one of the "100 Canadians to Watch" by Maclean's Magazine, and was named one of the "Top 40 Under 40" by the Financial Post Magazine.

Dr. Strathdee is missed by the staff of the Vanguard Project and everyone else she worked with at the BC Centre for Excellence, as well as the wider Vancouver community.

And introducing Dr. Bob Hogg

Upon her departure, Dr. Strathdee's responsibilities for the Vanguard Project were assumed by Dr. Robert Hogg, who has been a member of both the Vanguard research team and its Community Advisory Committee since the study began.

Dr. Hogg is a demographer who has worked at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS since 1992, after serving as a post-doctorate fellow at the Canadian HIV Trials Network.

An assistant professor in UBC's Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, Dr. Hogg currently holds a number of research grants, including the National Health Scholar award from Health Canada. His recent work has concentrated on the natural history of HIV disease and the impact of HIV on population health.