Dr. King K. Holmes,  chair of the UW Department of Global Health, won the prestigious 2013 Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for his work in sexually transmitted diseases, the Gairdner Foundation announced March 20.
The award, valued at CAN$100,000 (about US$97,300) is one of the world’s most esteemed prizes for medical research. Since 1959, of the 312 individuals presented with a Canada Gairdner Award, 80 have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.
The Gairdner Foundation, in citing the award, said that today more than 35 sexually transmitted diseases have been discovered. Holmes and the scientists he mentored are working on approximately 20 of these.
John Dirks, president and scientific director of the Gairdner Foundation, told The Lancet that Holmes “brought to medicine and public health the proper means of diagnosing, treating, and preventing STDs and of understanding their epidemiology. In addition, his amazing gift of mentorship launched so many trainees to the forefront of the global health scene, which, thanks in great measure to their achievements, is now a flourishing discipline in its own right. Holmes' huge lifetime contribution has no parallel. Among the many mountains on the public health landscape he stands out as an Everest.”