Society Citation Award Winners 

Current Winners

CAROL J. BAKER, MD, FIDSA, an expert on group B streptococcal (GBS) infections and other neonatal infections, is one of two recipients of IDSA’s 2011 Society Citation Award. First awarded in 1977, this is a discretionary award given in recognition of exemplary contribution to IDSA, an outstanding discovery in the field of infectious diseases, or a lifetime of outstanding achievement in a given area—either in research, clinical investigation, or clinical practice.

Dr. Baker is professor of pediatrics, molecular virology, and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Baker has led the field of GBS disease, beginning with her groundbreaking recognition of early and late GBS infections in infants in 1973. She dissected the role of bacterial polysaccharide capsules in infection and the interaction of capsule with the human immune system, carefully detailed the changing epidemiology of GBS infections, and led the way to development of a GBS glycoconjugate vaccine.

Dr. Baker has published more than 290 articles and reviews, and 72 book chapters, and has edited seven books in disciplines such as basic microbiology, epidemiology, immunology, diagnostic microbiology, carbohydrate chemistry, and clinical medicine. She is associate editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Red Book, which provides guidance on infectious diseases and immunization guidelines for pediatricians. She is also chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Baker has served on a number of IDSA committees including the Annual Meeting Program, Grants Awards, Antimicrobial Use and Clinical Trials, and Awards Committees. She was an IDSA Council member from 1996 to 1998 and served as IDSA President in 2001. More recently, she chaired a special panel that reviewed IDSA’s clinical practice guidelines on Lyme disease.

Dr. Baker received her medical degree at Baylor University College of Medicine, where she also served as resident in pediatrics and fellow in infectious diseases. She served as an intern at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center, and was a research fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston from 1973 to 1975, when she became part of the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, where she has received numerous teaching awards.

For her outstanding contributions to the field of infectious diseases and her commitment to IDSA, it is an honor for IDSA to present Dr. Baker with the 2011 Society Citation Award.

 WAFAA EL-SADR, MD, MPH, MPA, FIDSA, a leader in the global fight against the HIV epidemic, is one of two recipients of IDSA’s 2011 Society Citation Award, which recognizes exemplary contribution to IDSA, an outstanding discovery in the field of infectious diseases, or a lifetime of outstanding achievement in a given area—either in research, clinical investigation, or clinical practice.

Dr. El-Sadr has been a leader in global health, having established the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs at Columbia University, an organization that is recognized internationally for its leadership in support of design and implementation of large scale HIV and related programs around the world. Her work has been distinguished by linkage of education, service, and research and attention to partnerships, capacity buildings, and community engagement both in the U.S. and globally.

In the early days of the HIV epidemic, Dr. El-Sadr was among the first clinicians to provide care for underserved patients establishing comprehensive multidisciplinary HIV programs for individuals and families affected by HIV in Harlem, New York. She was instrumental in the success of the National Institutes of Health’s Community Program for Clinical Research on AIDS Network, which offered access to clinical trials for the populations most in need. She led the ground-breaking Strategies for Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (SMART) study, which led to a paradigm shift in the understanding of the pathogenesis and management of HIV disease. She currently chairs a feasibility study of focused approach for expanded testing and treatment in the U.S.

One of her colleagues says that “Dr. El-Sadr embodies the highest standards of our specialty—a rigorous researcher, tireless educator, committed community leader—who has translated new scientific findings into public policies that have helped to save many lives and to prevent the transmission of HIV and TB globally and locally.”

Dr. El-Sadr received her medical degree from Cairo University Faculty of Medicine in Egypt in 1974. After completing her residency at Cairo University, she moved to the United States, where she also did a residency in medicine at Cabrini Medical Center in New York followed by an infectious diseases fellowship at New York University and a research fellowship in geographic medicine at Case Western University. From 1979 to 1988, she taught at New York University Medical Center and later joined the faculty at Columbia and served as chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Harlem Hospital for two decades. She remains as professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. El-Sadr also holds a master’s in public health in epidemiology from Columbia University and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University.

Dr. El-Sadr credits her many remarkable mentors for guiding her throughout her career and her many colleagues in New York and around the world for continuing to inspire her work. For her outstanding contributions to the field of infectious diseases and global health, IDSA is honored to present Dr. El-Sadr with the 2011 Society Citation Award.

Past Society Citation Award Winners