2012 Union Awards
The Union awards consist of a full fellowship to attend the Union World Conference on Lung Health (including full delegate badge, travel and hotel), US$ 2,000 and a certificate presented at the conference. Honorees unable to attend the conference may designate a colleague to accept the award on their behalf. The application/nomination period for the 2013 awards will open in spring 2013.
The Union Young Investigator Prize: David Dowdy (USA)
The Union Young Investigator Prize was established in 2011. It acknowledges a researcher for work on tuberculosis or lung health published in the past five years, when 35 years and younger.
The Union Young Investigator Prize was given to Dr David Dowdy, an epidemiologist and practicing general internist whose primary body of work involves modeling the impact and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic interventions for tuberculosis, with a particular focus on developing methods for practical tools that can be utilised by decision-makers. Since 2011, his published modeling and economic work has included analyses of serological tests, TB transmission and point-of-care diagnostic testing. He was recently named to the steering committee of the TB Modeling and Analysis Consortium, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He also serves as the director of the modeling core for the TB Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium and is the Principal Investigator on a National Institutes of Health grant related to developing new models for TB diagnostics. Dr. Dowdy has authored or co-authored over 35 publications and is also already an accomplished teacher and mentor, in addition to awardee for professionalism and community service.
The Union Scientific Prize: Richard Menzies (Canada)
The Union Scientific Prize acknowledges researchers at any stage of their career for work on tuberculosis or lung health published in the past five years.
Dr. Dick Menzies received The Union Scientific Prize for his well-known, long history of involvement in tuberculosis care and research, beginning with his years in Lesotho. He has developed a tuberculosis research programme of clinical and epidemiologic studies linked with a large multi-disciplinary clinical service at the Montreal Chest Institute, and with a group of other Montreal researchers with diverse interests and expertise in TB. He collaborates closely with the Public Health Unit of Montreal and Immigration Canada. Dr. Menzies has also been involved as a consultant to national TB programmes in the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Ecuador, the Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and 25 book chapters, and is editor of the latest edition of the Canadian TB Standards. Dr. Menzies is known to many as a mentor and teacher, both locally, nationally and internationally and will assuredly continue this role in future years.
The Karel Styblo Public Health Prize: Karin Weyer (South Africa)
The Karel Styblo Public Health Prize acknowledges a health worker (physician or lay-person) or a community organisation for contributions to tuberculosis control or lung health over a period of 10 years or more.
Dr Karin Weyer was selected as the winner of the Karel Styblo Public Health Prize because of the global impact of her technical, managerial, and programmatic expertise. She is currently the Coordinator of Laboratories, Diagnostics and Drug Resistance (LDR) at the WHO Stop TB Department in Geneva, Switzerland, where she directs a multidisciplinary team responsible for developing new policies on TB diagnostics and laboratory procedures, norms and standards; as well as new policies and strategies for universal access to diagnosis, care and treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Weyer's career spanned 25 years of TB research at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), where she covered a broad spectrum of research activities and managed several national projects on drug-resistant and HIV-associated TB, as well as the SAMRC biosafety level three animal research and mycobacterial laboratories.
Learn more about Union Awards.
Honorary Members of The Union
Honorary membership is a lifetime award, through which The Union recognises colleagues for their distinguished contributions to the fight against tuberculosis and lung disease. As Honorary Members, they use their wisdom and experience to help to guide The Union in its mission.
Two new Honorary Members were named at the 2012 General Assembly of The Union in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 17 November:
Prof Asma El Sony (Sudan)
Asma El Sony was born and raised in Sudan. After her medical training, she worked in the UK at several trauma units and was part of the Woodruff Team of Tropical Medicine. She has worked for Sudan Federal Ministry of Health as a pneumonologist for many years. As Director of the National TB Programme, she and her team managed to reach 100% DOTS coverage in 2002.
Prof El Sony is also the founder and director of The Epidemiological Laboratory, a Union and WHO collaborating centre and national public health research institute in Sudan. She has served as a consultant and technical expert for the WHO, The Union, the Norwegian Heart and Lung Patients Association (LHL) and many other agencies. Long active in The Union, she most recently served terms as President and Past President of the Board of Directors.
Dr Richard O'Brien (USA)
Dr Richard O'Brien served as Chief of the Clinical Research Branch of the US CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE) from 1982 to 1991. He was then seconded to the WHO until 1996 to reestablish and head TB research in the Global Tuberculosis Programme. Following his return to the CDC DTBE, he oversaw the establishment of the TB Trials Consortium for therapy trials of new TB drugs and expanded research on new TB diagnostics.
In January 2004, Dr. O'Brien joined FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics) as Head of Product Evaluation and Demonstration. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Preventive Medicine/Public Health and has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals. In May 2010, he also received prestigious ATS World Lung Health Award.