Dr. Anthony Fauci, a physician, immunologist and infectious disease expert, will be awarded Case Western Reserve University’s 2024 Inamori Ethics Prize for his career-long work in protecting and researching public health. Fauci’s recognition was announced in The Daily on Oct. 25, and on Sept. 19, 2024 Fauci will receive the prize at CWRU, deliver a public lecture about his work and participate in a symposium.
Established in 2008, the Inamori Ethics Prize honors leaders whose actions left a
positive global impact. Each year’s recipient is commemorated and awarded the prize on campus.
“As a scientist, research leader and public health advisor, his contributions to scientific discovery have truly improved lives,” President Eric Kaler said in The Daily. “His leadership through one of the most challenging times in history—the COVID-19 pandemic—serves as a model for us all.”
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022. In this role, he advised every United States president from Ronald Reagan through Joe Biden. During his career at the NIAID, Fauci led research on COVID-19, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS and more.
“Despite immense pressure, unfounded challenges to his expertise, personal attacks and even death threats, Dr. Fauci never wavered in his insistence that policy must follow the science, because he understood lives were at stake,” Dr. Shannon French, Inamori professor of ethics and director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, said in The Daily.
Fourth-year biochemistry student Amber Akhter, team coordinator for CWRU Partners in Health and member of the National Network Leadership Team for Partners in Health, expressed excitement about Dr. Fauci’s recognition.
“As someone who believes and champions for the universal right to healthcare through my work with Partners in Health, it is exciting to see someone with a large platform champion for essential access to medicines,” Akhter said. “There is still much work to be done in terms of equitable healthcare, but honoring Fauci on such a grand scale affirms that our university prioritizes the work he has done and will continue to do.”
Seeing this award as a testimony to Fauci’s contributions to public health and ethics, fourth-year student and President of CWRU’s Public Health Association, Anirudh Muralidharan, specifically cited Fauci’s prominent role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“His dedication to science and public well-being has been inspiring throughout his career,” he said. “This recognition reinforces the importance of ethical leadership in public health and medicine for the health and safety of all.”
Additional reporting contributed by News Editor Zachary Treseler.
