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MacArthur Fellows
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Two from HMS Among 2003 MacArthur Fellows
Among the 24 recipients of the MacArthur "genius" grants for 2003, announced Oct. 5 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, are two HMS faculty members, Jim Yong Kim and Nawal Mohamed Nour. Each will receive a five-year, $500,000 award, no strings attached.
"Both Jim Kim and Nawal Nour have incredible track records for developing innovative programs for helping people who have generally slipped through the significant gaps in society's safety nets," said HMS dean Joseph Martin. "The HMS community has been quite proud of what Jim and Nawal have already accomplished and looks forward to what they can do with the assistance of the MacArthur Foundation."
An HMS associate professor of social medicine and also of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Kim is on leave this year to work as a public health physician at the World Health Organization in Geneva, specializing in the control and eradication of infectious diseases. He has formulated new models for containing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that once was considered untreatable in many poor regions around the world. Kim has envisioned and applied effective interventions at both local and global levels and is currently mapping new strategies for international health leadership in tuberculosis, AIDS, and other infectious diseases.
Nour, a Sudanese-American, is an HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology and the founding director of the African Women's Health Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The only clinic of its kind in the United States, this practice addresses the medical and emotional needs of female immigrants who have been genitally mutilated in their homeland. She has written an influential protocol for medical management of female circumcision and developed techniques for the surgical reversal of infibulation, the most severe form of female circumcision. By applying her skills in medicine and public health to contemporary issues of culture and human rights, Nour is advancing important initiatives in the area of international women's health.