Dr. Peter Kilmarx appointed Deputy Director of Fogarty International Center

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Peter Kilmarx, M.D., an expert in infectious disease research and HIV/AIDS prevention, has been named Deputy Director of the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Kilmarx previously served as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Country Director in Zimbabwe, providing oversight for 30 CDC staff who managed implementation of the U.S. efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

Dr. Peter Kilmarx

“I am delighted to welcome Dr. Kilmarx to Fogarty,” said Dr. Roger I. Glass, Fogarty Director. “His background leading clinical trials and programs overseas — combined with his management expertise — make him the ideal candidate to help the center advance international collaborations, boost its research and training programs, and prepare the next generation of global health research leaders.”

A captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, Dr. Kilmarx served as the CDC Ebola response team leader in Sierra Leone in September-October 2014, and as principal deputy team leader in Guinea in January-February 2015. Previously, he initiated the CDC response to the Ebola outbreak in Kasai Occidental, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in 2007, and led household surveillance in the Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, DRC, in 1995.

Dr. Kilmarx has held a variety of leadership positions at the CDC since 1996, including senior advisor to the Director for Health Reform and chief of the Epidemiology Branch — both in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He also served as director of the CDC partnership with Botswana to combat HIV/AIDS, TB and related conditions, as well as the chief of the CDC’s Sexual Transmission Research Section in Thailand. Previously, he completed assignments in Pakistan and the DRC. An experienced clinical trials manager, he has served as principal investigator on microbicide trials in Thailand, and as senior investigator in TB and HIV trials in Botswana. Until recently, he was principal investigator on HIV studies he initiated at public health facilities in Zimbabwe.

“I am excited to assume this new role, which will allow me to draw on my first-hand knowledge of the research questions facing health officials in low- and middle-income countries to strengthen Fogarty’s innovative programs,” said Dr. Kilmarx. “By cultivating in-country research expertise, we can empower low and middle-income countries to investigate their nation’s most pressing health issues so they can most effectively improve the health of their people.”

After earning his M.D. from Dartmouth-Brown’s Combined Program in Medicine, Dr. Kilmarx completed both his internal medicine residency and infectious disease clinical fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He remains board-certified in both specialties and is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and of the American College of Physicians. He has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial board of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

He began his international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the DRC (then Zaire), where he helped develop fisheries that are still productive today.

The Fogarty International Center addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information, visit www.fic.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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