Personal Details/Academic Background:
Professor Harvey Alter is a highly distinguished medical scientist from USA, who achieved worldwide recognition for his research in the context of discovering Hepatitis C virus. He is the chief of infectious diseases section and the associate director for research, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as the Distinguished NIH Investigator.
Professor Alter was born in 1935, he earned his medical degree at the University of Rochester, NY, and completed his postgraduate training in Medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester and within the University of Washington Hospital system in Seattle. Afterwards, he became a clinical associate at NIH. He then spent several years with Georgetown University, returning to NIH in 1969 to join the Clinical Center's Department of Transfusion Medicine as a senior investigator. As well as holding a faculty position at Clinical Research Training Program at the NIH, he is an Adjunct Professor at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, TX and the clinical Professor of Medicine in Georgetown University Hospital, Washington.
Professor Alter was elected as Master of the American College of Physicians, the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Pathology and he is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Internal Medicine and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
Being an expert in the field of blood-borne infectious diseases, he was elected for the membership of numerous scientific advisory boards that are working in this field, examples include; Blood Centers of the Pacific, International Society of Blood transfusion, the Scientific Advisory Board of Hepatitis B Foundation and many other societies formed by prestigious establishments such as NIH, University of California, and FDA.
Research and achievements:
Professor Alter is a very proliferative researcher with significant participation in over 380 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. For that, he was specifically invited to be a key speaker at numerous conferences all over the globe.
The immense importance of professor Alter’s work stems from the major medical advances achieved as a consequence of his research in virology, specifically the development of serologic assays that protect blood supplies worldwide. The above-mentioned work led to uncovering the determinants of viral clearance, persistence and disease pathogenesis using the tools of molecular biology and immunology.
The following points provide the highlights of past and current research achievements of professor Alter who was:
Awards and recognition:
For his outstanding research accomplishments, professor Alter received more than thirty exceptional Awards. The following are some of the awards that were bestowed upon professor Alter:
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of gastroenterology, professor Harvey James Alter is awarded the GRAND HAMDAN INTERNATIONAL AWARD for the Term 2015-2016.