Nobel laureate Blumberg lectures at AIT
Nobel laureate Baruch S. Blumberg (left) will be the lecturer-ender in March 2005 on the 2nd and final 'Bridges' event series to be held at the AIT Conference Center, AIT. He will lecture on Monday, 21 March 2005, 2:00 p.m. on the topic 'Science and its relevance to international cooperation and a peaceful society'.
Prof. Baruch S. Blumberg is a Distinguished Scientist at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, and Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases. After studying Physics and earning his MD and PhD degrees, he joined the National Institutes of Health and later became the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Institute for Cancer Research. While studying inherited protein differences related to disease susceptibility, he discovered a protein that he subsequently showed to be on the surface of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). The discovery of the virus was the starting point for a major growth of our knowledge of hepatitis B and later other hepatitis viruses. He invented diagnostic techniques for HBV that resulted in the control of post-transfusion hepatitis due to HBV. He also invented the hepatitis B vaccine, subsequently developed by several pharmaceutical companies and now one of the most commonly used vaccines in the world, that has saved millions of lives by the prevention of acute and chronic hepatitis and primary cancer of the liver. It is the first 'cancer vaccine' in general use. In 1999 he was appointed the Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Astrobiology Institute that is dedicated to the study of the origin, distribution, and future of life on Earth and in the Universe.
A Q&A; session will follow the lecture. A live web-broadcast and instructions for viewing lectures online can be seen at http://203.159.5.16/NobelLectures/live.html. A complete schedule on the event's lecturers at AIT can be obtained at https://oldweb.ait.ac.th/nobellectures2
All are cordially invited. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend. For further information please e-mail to: nadeera@ait.ac.th