WASHINGTON – The National Academy of Sciences is presenting its 2018 Public Welfare Medal to physician, anthropologist, and humanitarian Paul Farmer for “pioneering enduring, community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings in the U.S. and other countries.”  The medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.

Farmer is co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international social justice and health organization that serves poor communities in 10 countries around the world. A board-certified physician in internal medicine and infectious disease, Farmer is also Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The Public Welfare Medal will be presented to Paul Farmer on April 29 during the Academy’s 155th annual meeting.

[Read the full press release at the National Academy of Sciences]