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Karl Johnson, (505) 867-0012 Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821

October 25, 2001

UNM ADJUNCT PROFESSOR RECEIVES HIGHEST SCIENCE AWARD IN PANAMA

Dr. Karl Johnson, a world famous virologist and adjunct professor with joint appointments in the Biology Department and the School of Medicine at the University of New Mexico, was recently awarded the "La Orden de Manuel Amador Guerrero Medal" from Panama.

The medal, named after Guerrero the first president of Panama in 1903, is the highest honor the country awards in the field of science.

It is equivalent to the Medal of Science, which is the highest scientific honor bestowed upon scientists in the United States. The medal was established on the 50th anniversary of Panama's independence in 1953 and has been awarded to distinguished people in the sciences and arts for almost 50 years.

"I was given the award as a scientist who worked with viruses in their country that affected Panama's public health," said Johnson.

Johnson originally went to Panama in 1962, four years after the National Institutes of Health established a small virus lab in Panama to look into tropical diseases. Johnson planned to work at the lab for two years and wound up staying thirteen.

"It's (Panama) where I got into the first of several viruses that set the course of My career," Johnson said. "I worked on other viruses and diseases in Panama before the lab was eventually closed in 1975. A number of the people I trained stayed and worked at a place founded by Americans called Gorgas Institute, named after Gen. William Gorgas who cleaned up Havana and the Canal Zone from malaria and yellow fever." The Gorgas Institute has an ongoing relationship with the American research community working on tropical diseases. The Institute and Panama Ministry of Public Health have received help in Hantavirus research from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga. and from researchers at UNM.

"I went to Panama with Dr. Terry Yates, vice provost for Research, Dr. Jorge Salazar of the Biology Department, and Drs. Fred Koster and Brian Hjelle of the Medical School, for a two-day symposium on Hantavirus," Johnson said. "At the end of the symposium, the Minister of Health, Dr. Fernando Garcia, who previously was the director of the Gorgas Institute, presented me with the medal. It was a complete surprise. I was overwhelmed."

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