Public Health Heroes Awards Ceremony

A physician by training, Larry Brilliant has held roles of distinction in disparate fields, ranging from infectious disease epidemiology and social activism to high-tech entrepreneurship.

As a medical officer with the World Health Organization in the 1970s, he managed the smallpox program in India, leading a team of more than 100,000 workers, who in two years successfully searched out the last cases of variola major, essentially eradicating the disease in the subcontinent.

Inspired by this experience, Brilliant and his wife returned to the United States and founded the Society for Epidemiology and Voluntary Assistance (Seva), a foundation that restores sight to hundreds of thousands of people annually in Asia and Africa. By conducting national surveys of cataract-related blindness and establishing local self-sufficient eye-care hospitals, ophthalmology training programs, and manufacturing plants to produce low-cost interocular lenses, Brilliant’s organization has made possible more than 2 million operations and restored more sight than any entity in the world.

In 2006 Brilliant became the first executive director of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the renowned search engine company. The aim of the organization is to find innovative solutions to poverty and a host of other problems worldwide. He is also the founding vice-chairman of Cometa Networks; board member of several nonprofit organizations and technology companies; and a consulting physician epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for whom he is a volunteer “first-responder” in the event of smallpox bioterrorism.

During the last 30 years he has served the United Nations’ World Health Organization, the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the White House in many capacities, conducting research and contributing his expertise in the areas of smallpox, blindness, and AIDS vaccine policy. He has served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, and published two books and dozens of articles on international health and the epidemiologies of smallpox and blindness.

Award Presenter

William Foege, M.D., serves as senior adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 1997, Dr. Foege joined the faculty of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. In the 1960s, while working as an epidemiologist in Africa and faced with a critical shortage of vaccines, he came up with a strategy to eradicate smallpox. During his leadership as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1977 to 1983, smallpox was eradicated worldwide. Dr. Foege received the International Public Health Hero award in 1997.

The Challenge: Improving Health Internationally

The World Health Organization’s annually published World Health Report substantiates a sobering reality: a large percentage of the planet’s population is overwhelmed by the burden of diseases. Yet public health professionals across the globe labor on, fueled by the belief that some diseases may be curable or controllable within the foreseeable future.

Because resource-poor nations are ill equipped to do battle, it is incumbent upon the international community to help—if not in Seva’s spirit of altruism, then in recognition that there are mutual benefits to supporting good health worldwide. Because disease knows no borders, there is a need to build medical and public health expertise worldwide, encourage sustainable public health systems and disease prevention programs locally, and promote timely sharing of accurate information among nations.

The School of Public Health Responds

The School of Public Health recognizes that by collaboratively taking on existing challenges to international health, we become better prepared to meet the next public health challenge.

Throughout our 60-year history, our faculty have been in the laboratory and in the field, teasing out the secrets of infectious disease pathogenesis and transmission and providing a basis of understanding necessary for development of therapeutics and vaccines. Faculty have established novel approaches to monitoring viral vectors; discovered the mechanism for replication of dengue fever; documented the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis; and developed a low-cost method of replicating the polymerase chain reaction procedure that amplifies DNA.

Other faculty have advised world health agencies, developing a decision model for establishing health spending when resources are severely limited and aligning data that show the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in India is following the same devastating pattern as that of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s.

The School hosts six of the National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Centers for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, which promote and support scientific research and training internationally to reduce disparities in global health. The School’s centers focus on AIDS, tuberculosis, infectious diseases, environmental health, health services, and tobacco.

In addition, several School research teams are working internationally to help local health officials tackle public health problems. In China, faculty and graduate students utilize cutting-edge technologies to understand, monitor and control the transmission of schistosomiasis. Another group working in Guatemala and India has introduced locally made, better- ventilated, and cleaner-burning stoves, which have successfully reduced exposures and incidence of pulmonary problems.

	2004 International Hero Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H. Executive director, Google.org, and founder and former chair, Seva Foundation	Other 2004 Heroes National Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. Regional Dolores Huerta Organizational The East Bay's Health Departments
2004 International Hero -Larry Brilliant A physician by training, Larry Brilliant has held roles of distinction in disparate fields, ranging from infectious disease epidemiology and social activism to high-tech entrepreneurship. As a medical officer with the World Health Organization in the 1970s, he managed the smallpox program in India, leading a team of more than 100,000 workers, who in two years successfully searched out the last cases of variola major, essentially eradicating the disease in the subcontinent. Inspired by this experience, Brilliant and his wife returned to the United States and founded the Society for Epidemiology and Voluntary Assistance (Seva), a foundation that restores sight to hundreds of thousands of people annually in Asia and Africa. By conducting national surveys of cataract-related blindness and establishing local self-sufficient eye-care hospitals, ophthalmology training programs, and manufacturing plants to produce low-cost interocular lenses, Brilliant’s organization has made possible more than 2 million operations and restored more sight than any entity in the world. In 2006 Brilliant became the first executive director of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the renowned search engine company. The aim of the organization is to find innovative solutions to poverty and a host of other problems worldwide. He is also the founding vice-chairman of Cometa Networks; board member of several nonprofit organizations and technology companies; and a consulting physician epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for whom he is a volunteer “first-responder” in the event of smallpox bioterrorism. During the last 30 years he has served the United Nations’ World Health Organization, the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the White House in many capacities, conducting research and contributing his expertise in the areas of smallpox, blindness, and AIDS vaccine policy. He has served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, and published two books and dozens of articles on international health and the epidemiologies of smallpox and blindness. Award Presenter William Foege, M.D., serves as senior adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 1997, Dr. Foege joined the faculty of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. In the 1960s, while working as an epidemiologist in Africa and faced with a critical shortage of vaccines, he came up with a strategy to eradicate smallpox. During his leadership as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1977 to 1983, smallpox was eradicated worldwide. Dr. Foege received the International Public Health Hero award in 1997. The Challenge: Improving Health Internationally The World Health Organization’s annually published World Health Report substantiates a sobering reality: a large percentage of the planet’s population is overwhelmed by the burden of diseases. Yet public health professionals across the globe labor on, fueled by the belief that some diseases may be curable or controllable within the foreseeable future. Because resource-poor nations are ill equipped to do battle, it is incumbent upon the international community to help—if not in Seva’s spirit of altruism, then in recognition that there are mutual benefits to supporting good health worldwide. Because disease knows no borders, there is a need to build medical and public health expertise worldwide, encourage sustainable public health systems and disease prevention programs locally, and promote timely sharing of accurate information among nations. The School of Public Health Responds The School of Public Health recognizes that by collaboratively taking on existing challenges to international health, we become better prepared to meet the next public health challenge. Throughout our 60-year history, our faculty have been in the laboratory and in the field, teasing out the secrets of infectious disease pathogenesis and transmission and providing a basis of understanding necessary for development of therapeutics and vaccines. Faculty have established novel approaches to monitoring viral vectors; discovered the mechanism for replication of dengue fever; documented the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis; and developed a low-cost method of replicating the polymerase chain reaction procedure that amplifies DNA. Other faculty have advised world health agencies, developing a decision model for establishing health spending when resources are severely limited and aligning data that show the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in India is following the same devastating pattern as that of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s. The School hosts six of the National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Centers for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, which promote and support scientific research and training internationally to reduce disparities in global health. The School’s centers focus on AIDS, tuberculosis, infectious diseases, environmental health, health services, and tobacco. In addition, several School research teams are working internationally to help local health officials tackle public health problems. In China, faculty and graduate students utilize cutting-edge technologies to understand, monitor and control the transmission of schistosomiasis. Another group working in Guatemala and India has introduced locally made, better- ventilated, and cleaner-burning stoves, which have successfully reduced exposures and incidence of pulmonary problems.