ID Chief Bill Petri Named Virginia Outstanding Scientist

William A. Petri Jr., MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health in the Department of Medicine, has been named a Virginia Outstanding Scientist for 2017.

The award, which recognizes scientists who have made globally significant contributions to their field, was announced jointly by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Richard C. Conti of the Science Museum of Virginia.

“It’s a wonderful honor and, really, I feel it’s a product of being at Virginia,” Petri remarked. “I’ve been at the University of Virginia since I was a student. So everything I’ve accomplished is a reflection of the scientific environment at UVA.”

Dr. Petri, who holds the Wade Hampton Frost Professorship in Medicine, is an internationally renowned biomedical scientist who has dedicated his career in infectious diseases to bettering the health of children worldwide. His seminal research on amebiasis, an intestinal infection commonly found in children living in poverty, has redefined the modern understanding of enteric parasitic infections in infants.

Dr. Petri’s research lab focuses on molecular parasitology and C. difficile infection, and members conduct field work on infant vaccines and undernutrition in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. His FDA-approved antigen-detection tests are in worldwide use, and he has written over 400 publications.

Dr. Petri has won many accolades for his work as teacher and scientist, including:

• Squibb Award for Early Achievement, Infectious Diseases Society of America (1999 – now called the Oswald Avery Award)
• Dean’s Excellence in Faculty Research Award, UVA School of Medicine (2013)
• All-University Teaching Award, University of Virginia (2013)
• Outstanding Faculty Award, State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (2014)
• Distinguished Scientist Award, University of Virginia (2016)

A recent honor that recognizes his work on polio eradication was being appointed a member of the World Health Organization’s Polio Research Committee.

Read more about Virginia’s outstanding scientist awards in the governor’s newsroom. This year’s honorees received their awards at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond ‪on Feb. 23.

Adapted from Health System News Release (2/10/2017) by Brian Murphy

Petri and Erica Buonomo, one of the postdocs in his lab. She led a team, under Petri’s direction, that made an important discovery about C. difficile.

Dr. Petri accepted his Virginia Outstanding Scientist award at the Virginia Science Museum in Richmond on Feb. 23, 2017.

Highlights from Dr. Petri’s acceptance speech:

• Guidance and encouragement from other scientists was crucial in his career: “Key mentors [included] Lionel Poirier, who opened his lab at NIH to me as a high school student; the late Bob Wagner, who guided my PhD research and mentored me for years after; and [UVA’s] Dick Guerrant, who [has] inspired me for four decades.”

•  Science is not a solitary occupation, so the dedication and talent of colleagues and collaborators was also essential: “Medical research has been a wonderful experience of shared discoveries and mutual commitment to preventing and curing disease.”

• Petri noted the “incredible pace of discoveries” in medical science over the last few decades, and quoted the biologist and writer Lewis Thomas: “The major diseases of human beings have become approachable biological puzzles, ultimately solvable.”

– Finally, Petri spoke of the joy of understanding how “beautifully complex” life is: “There is no better place to appreciate God’s creation than in science.”