Schinazi will receive the FNLM Distinguished Medical Science Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and medicine over the past several decades, including revolutionary medical research and development of groundbreaking treatments. Past award recipients include Bernard Fisher, leader in the biology and treatment of breast cancer, and HIV/AIDS pioneer Robert Gallo.
Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology. He is also a senior research career scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and director of the Scientific Working Group on HIV Reservoirs and Viral Eradication for the Emory University Center for AIDS Research.
More than 94 percent of individuals in the U.S. being treated for HIV, and thousands more world wide, take one or more of the drugs invented by Schinazi and his colleagues. Schinazi continues to direct his research toward the development of promising drugs for challenging infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and chronic liver diseases.
Gupta will receive the FNLM Distinguished Health Communications Award. The award recognizes a member of the print or electronic press who has demonstrated consistent and sustained distinction in reporting biomedical and health information to the public. Past award recipient include Victor Cohn, regarded as the “dean of science writers,” and cardiologist Bernadine Healy, a former director of the National Institutes of Health.
Gupta is an Emory neurosurgery faculty member and chief medical correspondent for CNN. His neurosurgery practice is centered at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he specializes in all facets of neurosurgical care. As CNN’s chief medical correspondent, he plays an integral role in daily reporting on health and medical news for a variety of CNN broadcast and web programs.
"This is well-deserved recognition for two of our outstanding faculty members," says Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil, dean, Emory University School of Medicine. "Dr. Schinazi and Dr. Gupta represent the very best of medicine –– basic research resulting in lifesaving medical advances, advanced clinical care, and the highest level of health communication. I am extremely proud of their achievements."
For more information about the Friends of the National Library of Medicine: www.fnlm.org.