Alexander Fleming Award
The Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement recognizes an IDSA member or fellow for a career that reflects major contributions to the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge about infectious diseases.
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and Nobel laureate. He is best known for his serendipitous discovery of the antibiotic substance penicillin, which revolutionized the field of medicine and saved countless lives. Fleming’s groundbreaking research laid the foundation for the development of modern antibiotics, and his work continues to have a profound impact on the field of medicine to this day.
2026 Alexander Fleming Award Awardee
Stephen B. Calderwood, MD, FIDSA
Stephen B. Calderwood, MD, FIDSA, has demonstrated an exceptional ability to conduct high-impact basic and translational research with global impact. His research spans multiple aspects of infectious diseases, immunology and molecular biology, with a focus on pathogen-host interactions and epidemiological dynamics.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Calderwood, the Morton N. Swartz, MD, Distinguished Academy Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, led a group of investigators at Harvard in collaborating with colleagues at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, focusing on cholera and Vibrio cholerae. These studies have revolutionized the field and advanced our understanding of cholera to recognize its truly inflammatory nature and the immune responses that mediate protection, informing vaccine development and use.
As chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital for 27 years, Dr. Calderwood built one of the largest and most respected academic ID divisions in the country. Under his leadership, the division tripled in size and became a national model for excellence and equity.
A member of the IDSA Board of Directors from 2007 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2016, Dr. Calderwood has made numerous impactful contributions to the Society. As president in 2015, he led a strategic plan focusing on increasing recruitment into ID and emphasizing unity in diversity, and he helped design the IDWeek mentorship program. Dr. Calderwood also led significant initiatives as chair of IDSA’s Training Program Directors’ Committee (2002 2005), where he focused on increasing the recruitment of women and people from underrepresented backgrounds into ID and getting ID into the Fellowship Match.
Dr. Calderwood has demonstrated dedication to the next generation through his clinical and teaching activities and mentee interactions. He has trained more than 40 fellows and students in his laboratory and has received multiple awards for his mentoring, including the 2012 William Silen Lifetime Achievement Award in Mentoring from Harvard Medical School, the John T. Potts Award for Mentoring from Massachusetts General Hospital and the 2017 IDSA Walter E. Stamm Mentor Award.
He served as chair of the U.S.-Japan Panel on Cholera and Related Enteric Infections of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program. He has published over 275 journal articles, reviews and book chapters. He served as one of the inaugural co-editors-in-chief for the infectious disease portions of UpToDate.
Dr. Calderwood has been a national voice for excellence in science, education and clinical care. For his seminal contributions to ID in scholarship, patient care and teaching as well as his unwavering service, transformative mentorship and visionary leadership, the Society is proud to honor Dr. Calderwood with the Alexander Fleming Award in 2026.
Past Alexander Fleming Award winners
2025 Cynthia L. Sears, MD, FIDSA
2024 David N. Gilbert, MD, FIDSA
2023 Susan Swindells, MBBS
2022 Lawrence Corey, MD, FIDSA
2021 David Relman, MD, FIDSA
2020 James D. Cherry, MD, MSc, FIDSA
2019 Michael Scheld, MD, FIDSA
2018 Richard J. Whitley, MD, FIDSA
2017 Barbara E. Murray, MD, FIDSA
2016 Carol J. Baker, MD, FIDSA, FSHEA, FPIDS, and
P. Frederick Sparling, MD, FIDSA
2015 Anne Gershon, MD, FPIDS, FIDSA
2014 Martin J. Blaser, MD, FIDSA
2013 King K. Holmes, MD, FIDSA
2012 Martin S. Hirsch, MD, FIDSA
2011 Barton F. Haynes, MD, FIDSA
2010 Herbert L. DuPont, MD, FIDSA
2009 Arnold S. Monto, MD, FIDSA
2008 Robert C. Moellering Jr., MD, FIDSA
2007 Sherwood L. Gorbach, MD, FIDSA
2006 Merle A. Sande, MD, FIDSA
2005 John G. Bartlett, MD
2004 Stanley A. Plotkin, MD
2003 Bennett Lorber, MD
2002 Gerald T. Keusch, MD
2001 William A. Craig, MD
2000 Gerald L. Mandell, MD
1999 Anthony S. Fauci, MD
1998 Vincent Andriole, MD
1997 Andre J. Nahmias, MD
1996 Jack S. Remington, MD
1995 Jerome Klein, MD
1994 Paul Quie, MD
1993 Seymour Klebanoff, MD
1992 Sheldon Wolff, MD
1991 Theodore Woodward, MD, MACP
1990 George McCracken Jr., MD
1989 Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, MD
1988 Samuel Katz, MD
1987 Sydney Finegold, MD
1986 Robert Austrian, MD
1985 Elisha Atkins, MD
1984 Morton Swartz, MD
1983 Wesley Spink, MD
1982 Edward Kass, MD, PhD, MS
1981 Jay Sanford, MD
1980 Thomas Weller, MD, MS
1979 Gordon Meikeljohn, MS
1978 Louis Weinstein, MD, PhD
1977 William Kirby, MD
1976 Saul Krugman, MD
1975 Harry Dowling, MD
1974 Lawrence Sherwood, MD
1973 Charles Rammelkamp, MD
1972 Paul Beeson, MD
1971 Colin MacLeod, MD
1970 K.F. Meyer, PhD, DVM
1969 Thomas Francis, MD
1968 John Dingle, MD
1967 Chester Keefer, MD
1966 Maxwell Finland, MD
1965 W. Barry Wood, MD
1964 Ellard Yow, MD