HPM student wins young investigator award from International AIDS Society

June 28, 2014

Sarah Rutstein, health policy and management doctoral student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and medical student in UNC’s School of Medicine, has been awarded the AIDS 2014 Young Investigator Award by the International Aids Society (IAS) and the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS). She will accept the award at the 20th International AIDS conference on July 24 in Melbourne, Australia.

Sarah Rutstein

Rutstein, whose winning abstract was titled “Identifying persons with acute HIV infection in urban Malawi HIV testing and sexually transmitted infection clinics: An opportunity for HIV transmission prevention,” was selected for the award by a panel of international senior scientists. The award supports young investigators who demonstrate innovation, originality, rationale and quality in the field of HIV research.

“It is an honor to receive this award,” Rutstein said. “I’ve been working with the study for the last five years, and it’s exciting to see our results recognized for their meaningful contributions to HIV prevention efforts.”

The study, led by co-principal investigators William Miller, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology in the schools of medicine and public health at UNC, and Audrey Pettifor, PhD, UNC associate professor of epidemiology, evaluates biomedical and behavioral interventions for persons identified with acute HIV infection in Lilongwe, Malawi.