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Acknowledgments

This book and my career in tropical medicine owe so much to so many people. I had the unique opportunity to thank many of them during my 2011 Presidential Address to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.1 Here I will provide just a few highlights.

First, I have the most amazing group of bosses a person could ever hope to have. These individuals have made it possible to realize a lifelong dream of heading a school (National School of Tropical Medicine [NSTM] at Baylor College of Medicine) and institute (Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development) devoted to neglected tropical diseases (“NTDs”), in addition to my policy role at the James A. Baker III Institute at Rice University, all located in Houston, Texas. They include Drs. Paul Klotman and Mark Kline, Mark Wallace, Ambassador Michael Marine, Brian Davis, and Ambassador Edward Djerejian. Mort Hyman, the Chairman of the Board at Sabin Vaccine Institute, and his wife, Chris, have been unwavering in their support of my career family, as have the Sabin Board of Trustees. Major General Phil Russell on the board has been an incredible scientific mentor and friend, as have Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Mike Whitham, Peter Thoren, and Marc Shapiro (the Baylor representative) and Gary Rosenthal, the representative from Texas Children’s Hospital. The Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Baker Institute boards also represent an impressive and supportive group of individuals.

Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, the NSTM Associate Dean and head of product development at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, has been an important source of wisdom and support, as has our NSTM founding faculty, including Profs. Bin Zhan, Elena Curti, Michael Heffernan, Kathryn Jones, Rojelio Mejia, Kristy Murray, Rebecca Rico-Hesse, Bin Zhan, Oluwatoyin Asojo, Jose Serpa, and Laila Woc-Colburn, and the founding scientists and support staff, Drs. Coreen Beaumier and Chris Seid, Brian Keegan, Portia Gillespie, Cliff Kwytin, Lori Center, Meagan Barry, Cheryl Basile, Monica Cazares, Lori Center, Shivali Chag, Wen Chen, Ashish Damiana, Dr. Larry Ellingsworth, Rodion Gorkachev, Anna Grove, Sheila Gurwitch, Molly Hammond, Elissa Hudspeth, Alan Kelleher, Jocelyn Kemp, Maylene Leu-Bent, Zhuyun Liu, Brandon Malone, Sandra Torres, Diane Nino, Melissa Nolan, Jeroen Pollet, Wanderson Rezende, Simone Tiu, Qian Wang, and Junfei Wei. Back in Washington, DC, are a talented group of scientists and staff at Sabin Vaccine Institute headquarters and George Washington University, too numerous to mention. I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth Jordan for donating one of her extraordinary photographs from her “Colors of Poverty” collection for the book cover and to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien for her willingness to champion the NTDs. Alyssa Milano, Mr. and Mrs. Len Benckenstein (Southwest Electric Energy Medical Research Institute), and Mr. and Mrs. Howard Harpster have also been stalwart champions, as have my close NTD colleagues and mentors Jan Agosti, Miguel Betancourt, Anthony Fauci, Alan Fenwick, Roger Glass, Lance Gordon, David Molyneux, Trevor Mundel, Eric Ottesen, Mark Rosenberg, Regina Rabinovich, Roberto Tapia, and Marco Antonio Slim. Tara Hayward and Erin Knievel have been great colleagues at the Sabin Vaccine Institute. I personally want to thank the long-standing support of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carlos Slim Health Institute, South-west Electric Energy Medical Research Institute, Blavatnik Charitable Trust and Mr. Len Blavatnik, and Dr. Gary Michelson. Nathaniel Wolf was incredibly helpful in the editing and production of this book, while Esther Inman has been an amazing assistant.

Finally, I want to thank my extraordinary close and extended family for all their devotion and incredible support.

Peter J. Hotez

Houston, Texas

Note

1. Hotez PJ. 2012. ASTMH Presidential Address. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Am J Trop Med Hyg 87:3–10.