AMA awards Dr. Peter Hotez with Scientific Achievement Award

The American Medical Association has awarded Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, with the 2022 Scientific Achievement Award. He is one of four Texas physicians the AMA has honored for their work before and during the pandemic.

This award recognizes individuals for their notable work in the medical and science fields. Hotez was awarded for his efforts in vaccine development and combating vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. The Scientific Achievement Award is one of AMA’s highest-ranking awards.

“It has been an honor for me to work with the AMA throughout this pandemic,” said Hotez, who also is the Texas Children’s Hospital Chair in Tropical Pediatrics and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. “Together with Todd Unger, the chief experience officer at the AMA, we’ve worked to educate physicians and physician-scientists on how to combat vaccine disinformation, and overall, the AMA has been terrific in giving me a voice to explain the scientific basis of COVID-19 vaccine development.”

Hotez is a renowned physician-scientist who is recognized for his research in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. His work helped to shape policies in global health, leading to the annual treatment of hundreds of millions of people with parasitic and related neglected tropical diseases.

He has pioneered the molecular science behind neglected tropical disease vaccines, while co-leading a team developing vaccines for diseases such as human hookworm, schistosomiasis, chagas disease and SARS. This now includes developing a low-cost version of a COVID-19 vaccine, Corbevax, which received Emergency Use Authorization in India in December. Hotez also has led vaccine advocacy efforts to counter rising anti-vaccine and anti-science sentiments in the United States, while promoting vaccine diplomacy efforts globally.  

Hotez is the author of more than 600 scientific papers and four books, most recently, “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science (Johns Hopkins University Press). He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served as a U.S. Science Envoy for the State Department and White House under the Obama administration.
Learn more about AMA’s Scientific Achievement Award here.