Dr Anthony Fauci will receive the Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award on Dec. 6, according to a press release from the IU School of Public Health
The event will be hosted virtually and students can register to attend the event online.
Fauci has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984
Fauci has overseen many research projects focused on how to prevent, treat and diagnose HIV/AIDS during his career, according to the National Institute of Health.
“Recipients of the Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award have demonstrated their solemn promise to scientific methods, access to treatment, and educating the public," William Yarber, Director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, said.
Fauci was one of the lead members of former President Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force. When President Biden took office in January, Fauci was appointed Chief Medical Advisor to the President.
The namesake of the award, Ryan White, was a teenager from Kokomo, Indiana who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. White was the subject of The Ryan White Story, a film about White’s legal battle with his school system and his time as an advocate for AIDS research.
The Ryan White Award was first introduced in 2009 and given to Jeanne Ginder, White’s mother, for her work as an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS. Other past recipients include Sandy Thurman, Chief Strategy Officer of the US Global AIDS Coordinator’s Office and Dr Joep Lange, head of the Department of Global Health at the University of Amsterdam.
