Porter Prize

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2019 Porter Prize Honoree: Donald S. Burke

The 2019 Porter Prize will  awarded to physician, virologist, and researcher, Donald S. Burke, MD, in recognition of his contributions to health promotion and disease prevention. The awards luncheon will occur at noon on Friday, September 13 at the University Club, Ballroom A, following the half-day Festschrift Symposium honoring his career.

Luncheon registration
Luncheon registration closes one week ahead of event. After September 7, contact Jill Reumpler to inquire about late registration (ruempler@pitt.edu or 412-383-8849).

From 2006 through June 2019, Burke has served as dean of the Graduate School of Public Health and associate vice chancellor for global health at the University of Pittsburgh, making him the longest serving dean in school history. 

After receiving his MD from Harvard Medical School, Burke trained in medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals and in infectious diseases at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He served 23 years on active duty in the U.S. Army where he conducted research on prevention of diseases of military importance.

Throughout his professional life, Burke has studied prevention and control of infectious diseases of global concern, approaching epidemic control using strategies “from the bench to the bush.” He now leads a trans-disciplinary team that develops computational models and simulations of epidemic infectious and chronic diseases and uses these simulations to evaluate prevention and control strategies. 

porter prize program

Event Questions?

Contact Jill Reumpler at ruempler@pitt.edu or call 412-383-8849.

excellence in health promotion and disease prevention

The Porter Prize is awarded in recognition of an individual’s exemplary performance in health promotion and disease prevention. The Porter Prize is named in honor of Milton and Adrienne Porter.

Milton Porter (1910–96), as CEO of the L.B. Foster Company, was among the first industrialists in the nation to view the workplace as a site for wellness programs. Activities at his company resulted in smoking cessation, weight loss, and increased physical activity among employees. Understanding the benefits to society of clearly focused, well-managed, and fully funded health promotion and disease prevention efforts is the Porters’ legacy.

2019 Porter Prize Committee

Thank you to these members for their generous service on the Porter Prize committee: 

Judith Loftin Davenport, DMD, MPH
Lee B. Foster II
Philip B. Hallen
Judith R. Lave, PhD
Lois G. Michaels, MSHyg
Maya Tuttle
Christina L. Wilds, DrPH

Agenda

8:30 a.m.      Arrival and Continental Breakfast

Pitt Public Health, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, Pa.

9:00 a.m.      Welcome

Public Health Auditorium (G23)

Ann E. Cudd, provost and senior vice chancellor
Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research
Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences, John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine

9:15-10:15     Speakers

Nathan Wolfe, founder and chair, Metabiota
Jeanine Buchanich, Department of Biostatistics, Pitt Public Health

10:30-11:45 Speakers

Derek Cummings, Department of Biology and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida
Nelson Michael, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

12-1:30 p.m.  Porter Prize Luncheon & Award Presentation
University Club, Ballroom A  (pre-registration required)

Minimize Previous Porter Prize Honorees

  • 1985 Anne Somers, health economist and author 1986 Clarence Pearson, Peter Drucker Institute
  • 1987 Robert D. Sparks, W. K. Kellogg Foundation 1988 Rev. Fred M. Rogers, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
  • 1989 J. Michael McGinnis, assistant surgeon general; deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and senior vice president and founding director of the Health Group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • 1991 Senator John Heinz III
  • 1992 Wilford A. Payne, Primary Care Health Services
  • 1993 Lisbeth B. Schorr, social worker and author
  • 1994 Jonathan Fielding, University of California at Los Angeles
  • 1995 “It Takes a Whole Community to Raise a Child
  • 1996 C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general
  • 1998 Lester Breslow, University of California at Los Angeles
  • 2001 Steven A. Schroeder, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • 2002 Gordon DeFriese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 2003 William Novelli, AARP
  • 2004 Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and founder of the Morehouse School of Medicine
  • 2009 Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure
  • 2011 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris; 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine recipient for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
  • 2014 Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
  • 2016 Paul A. Offit, physician, educator, virologist and author

Maximize 2016 Porter Prize Lecture: Paul Offit
"UNVACCINATED: THE STRANGE HISTORY OF VACCINE EXEMPTIONS"

Maximize 2016 Porter Prize Honoree: Paul Offit