Four of the world’s most decorated scholars and influential researchers in the field of infectious diseases research will come to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to honor the legacy of the late Distinguished Professor Charles Alford, M.D.
At noon June 4, Anne Gershon, M.D., whose pioneering studies with varicella vaccine were crucial to its licensure, will deliver the third annual Charles Alford Memorial Lecture, “Whatever Happened to Congenital Varicella?” in the Children’s Harbor Bradley Lecture Center. Gershon is a professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Columbia University Medical Center.
Earlier in the day, Samuel Katz, M.D., who worked with Nobel laureate John Enders to develop the attenuated measles virus vaccine now used throughout the world, will speak to medical residents in the Bradley Lecture Center morning report. Katz, chair emeritus of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine, now is working on the Measles-Rubella Initiative to develop vaccine programs for resource-poor nations, especially sub-Saharan Africa.
Also here at the invitation of UAB Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics Rich Whitley, M.D., will be Catherine Wilfert, M.D., scientific director of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Michael Gershon, M.D., professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University.