Rockefeller and Aaron Diamond researcher Douglas Nixon receives Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award

Left to right: Co-founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Susie Zeegan; US Senator Barbara Boxer; Paul Krogstad, co-winner of the 2000 Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown; Douglas F. Nixon, co-winner of the 2000 Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award; and co-founder Susan De Laurentis. Photo courtesy of of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Douglas F. Nixon, M.D., Ph.D., a scientist at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center(ADARC) at Rockefeller University, today was named a co-winner of the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award. The award is given annually by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to top scientists from the international research community “on the basis of their knowledge, innovation and dedication.”

Nixon, who shares the 2000 honor with Paul Krogstad of the UCLA School of Medicine, will receive approximately $700,000 for five years of research into pediatric AIDS. Those funded by the award, now totaling 21 worldwide, “have achieved significant advances in pediatric HIV/AIDS research.” Nixon receives the award for investigating how antiviral white blood cells function in pediatric HIV infection, why they malfunction, and how these antiviral responses may be boosted.

“We are quite pleased that Doug is being honored for his outstanding research in pediatric HIV infection,” says Rockefeller Professor David Ho, M.D., scientific director and CEO of ADARC. “And we are grateful to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation for recognizing the importance of his work and providing funds to help him continue his investigations.”

The awards were presented at a press conference in San Francisco by Mayor Willie Brown, who proclaimed Mon., Jan. 31 as “Elizabeth Glaser Day.” The proclamation and awards ceremony were planned to coincide with the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection being held in San Francisco. That meeting allows many of the world’s leading HIV/AIDS researchers to convene in advance of July’s World AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

A statement from the foundation says that its Scientist Award “reflects the dynamic qualities for which Elizabeth herself is rememberedÑa keen sense of mission, unswerving vision, and a passion for bringing hope to children with HIV/AIDS. Through these awards, her vision and resolve will continue to inspire researchers to join together and bring an end to pediatric HIV/AIDS.”

“I can think of no better day, than on Elizabeth Glaser Day, to present this honor to these two gifted scientists. They have demonstrated the tenacious curiosity and tireless dedication of which Elizabeth would be deeply thankful,” says Paul Glaser, Chairman of the Board of the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation.