Congratulations to Dr. Alfred Sommer, winner of the 2017 Dr. G. Venkataswamy Oration Award
This year’s Dr. G. Venkataswamy Oration Award was presented to Dr. Alfred Sommer, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the prevention of needless blindness in the developing world.
Dr. Sommer’s landmark research on vitamin A is credited with saving the lives of millions of children around the world. He proved that a 4-cent dose of vitamin A not only prevented and cured eye disease, but also dramatically reduced childhood deaths from infectious disease. Because of his work, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and their partners now annually provide more than 400 million vitamin A supplements to children around the world, saving hundreds of thousands of lives each year.