Dr. Stanley Plotkin is regarded as the founding father of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. His career has had an enormous impact on all of us as infectious diseases professionals, but more importantly, on the health of countless of the world’s children through the development and global implementation of two lifesaving vaccines: rubella and rotavirus; his role as an international champion for immunization; and his publication of the authoritative textbook, Vaccine.
During his long and distinguished career, Dr. Plotkin has served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at CDC and spent a year in London at the Hospital for Sick Children before starting his extraordinary investigative career at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Wistar Research Institute. His laboratory efforts at the Wistar resulted in the development of the RA27/3 live-attenuated rubella virus vaccine, now used nationally and internationally, for the prevention of rubella. Working with Drs. Fred Clark and Paul Offit, he also developed a bovine human pentavalent reassortant rotavirus vaccine that was licensed as RotaTeq and is administered to children throughout the world. Then after 30 years at CHOP, Dr. Plotkin joined Pasteur Mérieux Connaught Vaccines in Paris as their medical and scientific director. It was there that he would play a key role in the development and provision of vaccines for the international community and in the evaluation and implementation of the acellular pertussis vaccines.
His influence on us in pediatric infectious diseases is unparalleled. Dr. Plotkin served as a mentor for many young investigators who have gone on to their own productive investigative careers. He founded the Pediatric Infectious Disease Club in 1978 and directed its maturation into the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. He chaired the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics for many years; was a liaison member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at CDC; and served on many NIH Study Sections and as a member of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. Recently, he has been active in combating misinformation surrounding vaccines through his editorial efforts.
PIDS is thrilled we get the opportunity to recognize our founder and colleague with the Distinguished Research Award at ID: Our Legacy, the PIDS Foundation Annual Dinner. We invite everyone at IDWeek to join us at the Stanley A. Plotkin Lecture in Vaccinology (Friday, Oct. 23, 4:45-6 p.m. ET) to witness the ongoing legacy of the individual we honor as the “Father of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.”