HONORARY DEGREE

Dr. Thomas Quinn is a world-renowned scientist known for his groundbreaking HIV/AIDS research. He was one of the first researchers to identify the AIDS epidemic and its cause, the HIV virus.

As one of the top clinician-scientists in the world, he has been a leader in the world’s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, working to decrease the rate of illness, the number of deaths, and reduced transmission rates with antiretroviral therapy, particularly in developing countries. In addition, through a clinical trial, his team reported the benefits of voluntary male circumcision to reduce HIV acquisition by half in Uganda.

Dr. Quinn is currently a professor of medicine and pathology at Johns Hopkins University and is the founding director of the university’s Center for Global Health. He is also a NIH distinguished investigator and associate director of international research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Quinn earned his Master of Science from Notre Dame University in 1970 and his medical degree from Northwestern University in 1974.

He has published more than 800 scientific articles with more than 52,000 citations. Based on his body of scholarly work, Dr. Quinn was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and an elected member of the Association of American Physicians.

At the forefront of developing public health and research capacity in Africa, Dr. Quinn has mentored many clinicians and scientists. His leadership and commitment has contributed to the training of more than 13,000 health-care providers in Africa to combat the AIDS epidemic. He co-founded the Academic Alliance of AIDS Care and Prevention, and helped build the largest Infectious Diseases Institute in East Africa at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Quinn is on the editorial boards of several high-impact scholarly journals, including the Journal of Clinical Investigation, AIDS, Lancet Global Health, and the Journal of Infectious Diseases. He also serves as an advisor to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS and chaired the Board on Global Health for the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Quinn is the recipient of multiple honours and distinctions over the course of his career, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Charles C. Shepard Science Award, an American College of Preventive Medicine Award, and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care’s Heroes in Medicine Award. He is also the recipient of the Distinguished Leader Award in Global Health from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. In 2009, the University of Manitoba honoured him with a Distinguished Visiting Lectureship Award.

The University of Manitoba is proud to award a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, to Dr. Thomas Quinn for his commitment to understanding the complexities of the HIV virus and his pursuit of improving the health of people around the world.

THURSDAY, MAY 18, 10 AM

Lara Rae

TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 3 PM