Robert C. Gallo, MD, is director of the Institute of Human Virology and a professor of medicine, microbiology, and immunology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Medicine. He is recognized widely for his achievements in pioneering the field of human retrovirology.
Gallo's major current scientific interests are the mechanisms of how HIV causes AIDS, developing better and safer therapy for HIV-infected people, helping to develop an effective preventive vaccine, basic studies on the biology of human cancer cells, and the role of viruses in some human cancers.
Gallo is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies including the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine in Glasgow, and the Royal Society of Medicine in Brussels. He has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, Sweden, Italy, Israel, and Belgium.
Among the numerous honors and awards Gallo has received are the Albert Lasker Prize, twice; the Meritorious and Distinguished Service and Superior Service Awards from the U.S. Public Health Service; the General Motors Prize for Cancer Research; the American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor; the Ciba Geigy Drew Award (twice); and the first Dale E. McFarlin Memorial Award of the National Retrovirology Association.
Internationally, Gallo has received the Japan Prize for Science and Technology; France's Griffuel Prize from the Association for Research on Cancer; India's Birla International Award; Canada's Gairdner Foundation Award; Israel's first Otto Herz Prize in Cancer Research and the Rabbi Shai Schacknai Memorial Prize; and, most recently, the Nomura Prize from Japan and the Gustav-Embden Award and the Paul Ehrlich Prize, both from Germany.
Gallo has lectured extensively throughout the world and was the most referenced scientist in the world between 1980 and 1990. He is on the editorial board of numerous scientific journals and is the author of more than 1000 publications, including "Virus Hunting: AIDS, Cancer and the Human Retrovirus: A Story of Scientific Discovery."