Myron M. Levine Receives Award from American College of Physicians

Award Recognizes His Decades of Innovative Work on Vaccines

Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH, the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Associate Dean for Global Health, Vaccinology and Infectious Diseases, has been awarded the American College of Physicians Award for Science for Outstanding Work in Science as Related to Medicine. The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the national organization of internists. Prof. Levine will receive the award April 30 at the group’s Internal Medicine Meeting 2015 in Boston.

Established in 1958, the award honors recipients for exceptional contributions to medicine.

Prof. Levine, the Bessie & Simon Grollman Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine, founded the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) at the school in 1974 and served as its director through 2014. For the past 40 years, under Prof. Levine’s leadership, the CVD has conducted a wide range of research relating to the development of vaccines for a variety of diseases, including cholera and malaria. The CVD also developed new delivery systems, as well as public health and vaccine policy. Most recently, Prof. Levine lead CVD’s involvement in the World Health Organization’s consortium to test an Ebola vaccine.

Prof. Levine is clinically trained in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases and is also trained in tropical public health and epidemiology. He received post-graduate laboratory training in microbiology and immunology of bacterial infections.

Prof. Levine served as a World Health Organization consultant to the Smallpox Eradication Program in Bangladesh in 1975 where he was District Coordinator for Rajshahi District. From 2000 to 2002, he was a member of the first Working Group of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (now called the GAVI Alliance), and was co-chair of its Task Force on Research and Development.

Prof. Levine has published more than 570 peer-reviewed journal articles, is an inventor or co-inventor on many issued patents, and is senior editor of New Generation Vaccines, a textbook of research vaccinology. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, he is the recipient of the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement in the area of vaccine development and implementation, and has also received the Merck-Hilleman Award, the American Society for Microbiology’s premier award for major contributions to pathogenesis, vaccine discovery, vaccine development, and control of vaccine preventable diseases.

“Prof. Levine richly deserves this important honor,” said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the vice president for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the School of Medicine. “His decades of diligent work have yielded many innovations, which have saved many thousands of lives around the globe.”

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland’s Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world.
medschool.umaryland.edu/

About the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 141,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness.
www.acponline.org