Sunday, November 3, 2013

Went to San Francisco for day – flew in the AM, gave Keynote at the Lancet/Cell Conference on “Achieving an AIDS-Free World”. My talk was widely quoted and praised for its comprehensive analysis of the opportunity and challenges in achieving an AIDS-Free world. Richard Horton (Editor of The Lancet) praised me in several subsequent commentaries and editorials. This is now a highly visible and muchdiscussed issue of an AIDS-free generation. I am leading the discussion, but with the usual caveats that it is not yet time for a “victory lap” since much needs to be done and despite great scientific and implementation advances, this is not on automatic pilot. I flew back on “red eye”. Hence 12 hours in the air and about 10 hours in SF. This is my life. Nov. 11-16, 2013 - Great trip with Christine to visit Oxford and give the Unither Baruch Blumberg Lecture at Oxford on “Ending the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: From Scientific Advances to Public Health Implementation”. Met with Raymond Dwek and other colleagues. Visited historic sites within Oxford and enjoyed seeing places where Willis (Circle of Willis), Harvey (circulation) and Francis bacon lived and went to school. I am not usually moved by these things, but this was good. On Nov. 13-14, went to Berlin to receive the Robert Koch Gold Medal. Great honor. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University received the Robert Koch Prize for his work on microbiome. My Medal was for lifetime achievement in medical science. Peter Palese gave the best introduction of me ever. He seriously compared my career to that of Robert Koch in that I attacked a brand new disease (HIV/AIDS) in the same manner that Koch approached and studied Anthrax, TB, etc. It was a humbling and exciting visit. I gave the Robert Koch Lecture at the Max Planck Institute and reacted with many students. Also saw old friends Stefan Kaufman (nominated me), Fritz Melchers, Hermann Wagner, etc. Visited Checkpoint Charley, Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag. Great honor and enjoyable visit.