Dr. John Galgiani receives AZBio Pioneer Award for Life Achievement

[Celebrants of Dr. John Galgiani's winning the 2023 Pioneer Award for Life Achievement join him onstage at the AZBio Awards Ceremony at the Phoenix Convention Center on Sept. 27.]

Colleagues and staff from the University of Arizona, other universities and industry groups he’s worked with join John Galgiani, MD, an infectious diseases professor and Valley Fever Center for Excellence founding director, to celebrate his winning the 2023 Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Arizona Bioindustry Association at a ceremony at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Congratulations to John N. Galgiani, MD (center in above photo), professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and Phoenix and founding director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence.

As announced in August, he was presented on the evening of Sept. 27 with the Arizona Bioindustry Association’s AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement at the awards ceremony that culminates Arizona BioScience Week, this year held Sept. 25-29 with a series of events in the Phoenix area.

The ceremony and dinner were at the Phoenix Convention Center.

[Photo of an older white man wearing a doctor's white coat on a yellow background with the words: Celebrating 20 Years of Impact - AZBIOAWARDS]“It is such an honor to have been selected by AzBio for its Pioneer Award and to be on the same list as the UA Cancer Center’s Dr. David Alberts, the UA Health Sciences’ and C-Path’s Dr. Ray Woosley, the UA Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation’s and Sarver Heart Center’s Dr. Marvin Slepian, and UA Pathology’s and Ventana Medical Systems’ Dr. Tom Grogan – all previous winners of this honor,” said Dr. Galgiani. 

“More than anything else, I feel this highlights the emerging realization that Valley fever is a major public health problem for Arizona and other western states, it needs to be managed, and the Valley Fever Center for Excellence is providing the leadership to do that.”

The day following the awards ceremony, Dr. Galgiani – who joined the UArizona faculty in 1978 after a fellowship at Stanford University where he began studying Coccidioidomycosis, the infection that causes Valley fever, two years earlier – participated in a “Innovation & Man’s Best Friend” panel discussion on vaccine development to protect against the deadly fungal disease. He established the Valley Fever Center in 1996 with the backing of the Arizona Board of Regents.

Anivive Lifesciences, which licensed a vaccine in 2017 developed by the center’s research team from the UArizona’s commercialization arm Tech Launch Arizona, is poised to bring the first fungal vaccine to market for any species – in this case to protect dogs against Valley fever – soon.

More recently Dr. Galgiani helped launch the Valley Fever Collaborative, an alliance of the state’s three public universities and industry that was created in 2021 to tackle this illness caused by inhaling Coccidioides spores found in arid soils of the U.S. Southwest in a more comprehensive way. That includes advancing a vaccine for humans. About two thirds of Cocci infections occur in Arizona.

You can view the video used to highlight milestones in Dr. Galgiani’s career at this link.

Please enjoy this selection of photos courtesy of AZBio, Tech Launch Arizona and the Valley Fever Center for Excellence.

MINI-PHOTO GALLERY:
Mouseover the images for captions and click on them to enlarge.

[Three men sit in chairs beneath an illuminated screen for a panel discussion on "Innovation & Man's Best Friend," referring to development of a vaccine to prevent Valley fever in dogs.] [From left, Dr. Galgiani, Stephen Johnston, PhD, director for the Center for Innovations in Medicine at The Biodesign Institute and a School of Life Sciences professor at Arizona State University, and the panel moderator James Bates, a board member for the Arizona Bioindustry Association and CEO and founder of AdviNow Medical Inc., at a panel discussion on "Innovation & Man's Best Friend," referring to development of a vaccine to prevent Valley fever in dogs.] [Older white man with beard gestures while discussing development of a vaccine to prevent Valley fever infections in dogs and a potential human vaccine at a panel discussion at the AZBio Week festivities in Phoenix.] [Older white man with beard holds back his jacket to reveal what's written on his T-shirt: "Say this ten times real fast, Coccidioidomycosis, Coccidioidomycosis...," which is the scientific name for Valley fever.]

[A yellow illuminated slide is projected on a screen at the AZBio Awards Ceremony with the face of an older white man wearing a physician's white coat and emblazoned with the words: "AZBio Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement, John N. Galgiani, MD, Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona.”] [Two white men and a woman huddle in the middle of a stage as others watch on while an award is presented to one of the men and they pose for a photo to be shot.] [A white woman on a stage congratulates a bearded white man for winning an award as another white man and the audience at this awards ceremony watch.] [Three white people, a woman and two men, one holding an award pose as a photograph is taken of them.]

[Three white men, the one in the middle holding an award, pose as a photograph is taken of them.] [Five white men, the one in the middle holding an award, pose as a photograph is taken of them.] [A bunch of people on stage pose with a white man in the middle holding a plaque to celebrate his lifetime achievement award and get their photo taken.] [A person holds up the 2023 AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement while Drs. Michael Abecassis and John Galgiani chat in the background.]

ALSO SEE:
“Paving a path for Valley fever research, treatment, prevention” | Posted Oct. 1, 2023
“UArizona Valley fever expert, Dr. Galgiani to receive lifetime achievement award” | Posted Aug. 18, 2023
"Urgent Care data show Valley fever season has begun in Arizona" | Posted July 27, 2023
"Study Finds Valley Fever Training Improves Early Recognition of the Disease" | Posted Feb. 1, 2023

Release Date: 
10/02/2023 - 3:30pm
Media Contact: 
David Mogollon | Communications Manager, University of Arizona Department of Medicine