News & Events

Sir Gustav Nossal Speaks at Fourth Annual Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Lecture

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The fourth annual Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Lecture was held October 16^th in Westminster Hall. Organized by the Institute for Human Virology, it featured renowned immunologist Sir Gustav Nossal, Professor Emeritus, The University of Melbourne, Australia. His speech, entitled The Twenty First Century: A Turning Point in Global Health Reform, spotlighted the success of immunization in lowering the death rate in the world's poorest countries.

"I'm an optimist," says Dr. Nossal, who is known to colleagues as Sir Gus. "I've seen the horrible health problems in developing countries, but I'm also seeing that at long last the world is starting to wake up and do something about it. Particularly in the field of vaccines, where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been so exceedingly generous. As a result, childhood mortality is falling, some of the diseases are coming under control. So we have to basically do more of the same. The era of patronage is gone. The era of partnership has begun."

Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum have long partnered with the University of Maryland to improve the health of Marylanders, and this lecture series is an important part of that. At Sir Gus' lecture, Stewart Greenebaum expressed the utmost confidence in the Institute of Human Virology and its leader, Dr. Robert Gallo. Mr. Greenebaum said he would do everything in his power to help Dr. Gallo bring world health leaders to the University of Maryland School of Medicine to promote and work for the improvement of the human condition. He is currently working to establish a foundation that will finance lectures here at the school by other renowned scientists and physicians.