Alfred Sommer

Head of the Jury

Alfred Sommer received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1967 and began working at the Centre for Disease Control in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, where he began his training in epidemiology. During this time, he was assigned to the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, where he first became interested in vitamin A deficiency in children. He returned to the United States after his assignment, and completed his Masters Degree in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Following this, he completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins.

In 1976, Dr. Sommer moved to Indonesia to begin his comprehensive studies of vitamin A deficiency. His landmark work on vitamin A has led to numerous awards including the Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1997, the Helmut Horten Medical Research Award, and the Charles Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health.

Prof. Sommer was Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore between 1990 and 2005 and is currently Professor of Epidemiology, International Health, and (at the School of Medicine) Ophthalmology. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is the Immediate Past President of the Association of Schools of Public Health and the Chairman of the International Vitamin A Consultative Group (IVACG).