This article appeared in the Daily Progress, the newsletter of the XI International Conference on AIDS, on July 8, 1996.
Eight young investigators have been chosen for special honour
at a ceremony to be held Thursday, July 11, beginning at 7 p.m.
in GM Place. The work of each was chosen as one of the two top-rated
abstracts in its conference track by the 700-member International
Scientific Committee in blind reviews of abstracts submitted by
authors under 35 years of age. Those chosen will receive a Young
Investigator Award and a $2,000 grant to encourage their continued
commitment to work in this field.
Top honours in Track A (Basic Science) go to Marinka Tellier of the University of Florida for her work in evaluating the efficacy of a conventional dual-subtype feline immunodeficiency vaccine against heterologous challenge, and Paul Parren of California's Scripps Research Institute for his role in identifying a single recombinant antibody which affords complete protection against HIV-1 infection in mice.
Clinical researchers from England and the US will be spotlighted in Track B. Amanda Mocroft of London's Royal Free Hospital will accept the award for her work on antiherpes treatment and the risk of Kaposi's sarcoma in HIV infection. Femke Bouwman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will be honoured for insightful work on the clinical progression of dementia as a complication of HIV infection.
In Track C (Epidemiology and Public Health), Canadian Steffanie Strathdee of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS will receive recognition for her work on the role of social determinants such as depression and a history of sexual abuse in predicting needle-sharing behaviour among injection drug users. Grace John of the University of Nairobi and the University of Washington also receives the award for her study of cervicovaginal viral DNA in pregnancy and its possible relationship to maternal-child transmission during birth.
The winners in Track D (Social Science: Research, Policy and Action) are Michael Orsini of Montreal for his presentation on the "politics of identity" among AIDS activists and, in particular, how activism is affecting the lives of gay men. Christopher Mast of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health will accept the award for his Thursday poster presentation on the effects of common beliefs and practices about the routine immunization of children born to HIV-infected mothers in Uganda.
For more information, contact:
Bonnie Devlin
Vanguard Project Coordinator
608 - 1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6Z 1Y6
Tel: (604)806-8306
Fax: (604)806-9044