By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
John D. Clemens, director-general of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul, received the 2010 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award during a ceremony at George Washington University, Washington D.C., Tuesday.
Dr. Clemens, who has led the IVI for the last 10 years, has mirrored the late Dr. Sabin's legacy of reducing suffering and promoting peace through the development, evaluation and distribution of vaccines.
``I am humbled to be receiving an award commemorating one of the great heroes of vaccinology, Albert Sabin, and to be in the company of past recipients of the award, all of whom I admire, and several of whom have been my friends and mentors,'' Dr. Clemens said.
The IVI has heralded ``vaccine diplomacy'' in various parts of the world, including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Program, which aims to reduce disease in North Korean children by providing technical assistance in laboratory diagnosis and surveillance of these diseases and through the introduction of vaccines to prevent them.
The Gold Medal Award is the highest scientific honor given by the Sabin Vaccine Institute and commemorates the legacy of Dr. Sabin, whose vaccine diplomacy efforts in the Soviet Union during the Cold War led to the development of the oral live virus polio vaccine. Awards have been presented since 1994.
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