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Published September 6, 2019
Health sciences researchers from around the globe will gather in Buffalo for the 18th Annual Conference for Administrators of Awards from the Fogarty International Center hosted by UB’s Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences (CIGBS).
The Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is dedicated to supporting and facilitating global health research by building partnerships between health research institutions in the U.S. and abroad while training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs.
The conference is scheduled for Sept. 12-13 at UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
The meeting was conceived nearly two decades ago to bring together Fogarty award administrators and program coordinators to share their collective experiences in building research programs around the world.
The conference has grown in significance as one of the primary mechanisms for creating efficient capacity building in the area of research administration with a focus on recruitment, fiscal management, core facility building and international travel.
“Being selected to host this conference, and the participation of Fogarty’s deputy director, Dr. Peter Kilmarx, highlights the NIH’s recognition of CIGBS’s commitment to build integrated global biomedical sciences capacity for health research in low-middle income countries, says Gene Morse, CIGBS director and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“Our synergistic Buffalo-based collaborations with NIH-supported programs like the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center help us achieve our sustainable development goals.”
The conference will be preceded by Emerging Issues in Global Health, a mini-symposium highlighted by a keynote from Kilmarx, Fogarty International Center deputy director.
An expert in infectious diseases and HIV and AIDS prevention, Kilmarx will share the nation’s current priorities in global health research. After the symposium, he will meet with UB leaders to discuss the university’s capacity-building partnerships with the University of Zimbabwe, University of the West Indies and more.
The symposium will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 11 in the Active Learning Room at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, 955 Main St..
Emerging Issues in Global Health, sponsored by CIGBS and the UB Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, is open to all faculty, staff and students.
Kilmarx began his international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he helped develop fisheries that are still productive today.
He has since held numerous positions within the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that include country director in Zimbabwe; Ebola response team leader in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo; and chief of the CDC’s sexual transmission research section in Thailand.
A rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, he has also served as principal investigator on a number of clinical trials, including studies related to preventive microbicides in Thailand, tuberculosis and HIV in Botswana, and HIV in Zimbabwe.
Kilmarx has published more than 100 book chapters and articles in academic journals, and serves on the editorial board of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the world's longest running international journal on sexual health.
He earned a doctorate in medicine from the Dartmouth College and Brown University combined medicine program, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Dartmouth College.