PETER J. HOTEZ, PHD
BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
JOHN P. MCGOVERN SCIENCE & SOCIETY AWARD
Biography
Dr. Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology & microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital endowed chair of tropical pediatrics. He has become widely recognized as one of the world’s leading minds in vaccine development and diplomacy.
Dr. Hotez' CVD team at Texas Children’s has developed new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus. In December 2021, he co-led the development of low-cost recombinant protein COVID vaccine technologies for global health, resulting in emergency use authorization in India and Indonesia.
As both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, Dr. Hotez has emerged as one of the nation’s leading vaccine defenders against a growing national “antivax” threat. In 2022, along with his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for “work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.”