When the 7th International Conference on Hantavirus Ecology and Disease was held in Puerto Vargas, Chile earlier this month, it opened with a tribute to UNM Vice President for Research and Economic Development Terry Yates. Yates, who died in December, was a well-known researcher into the ecology of rodent-borne diseases. He established research studies on Hantavirus ecology in Chile in 1999 and served as the ecology project leader from 1999-2005 under an ongoing research grant funded by the NIH.
The conference was sponsored by Universidad Católica de Santiago, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile, the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and UNM. The yearly conference draws scientists, medical doctors, and clinicians interested in the latest research on the biology and ecology of Hantavirus.
A number of UNM representatives attended the conference including Brian Hjelle, professor of pathology and interim chair of the pathology department in the School of Medicine; Diane Goade, associate professor of internal medicine; Sang Joon-Lee, assistant professor of internal medicine; Greg Mertz, professor of internal medicine and chief of the division of infectious diseases; Sarah Koster, clinical research manager in the division infectious diseases; Joe Cook, professor of biology and curator of mammals in the Museum of Southwestern Biology; Marjorie McConnell, a senior program manager in the biology department and Fernando Torres Perez, a post-doctoral fellow the departments of biology and pathology.
The tribute was arranged by two Chilean friends and colleagues of Yates, Eduardo Palma, a professor of biology at Universidad Católica de Santiago and former UNM doctoral student, and Roberto Belmar, a former senior physician in the Ministry of Health of Chile. Both Chilean scientists noted Yates’ extraordinary efforts to bring together a diverse set of investigators and clinicians to stimulate truly interdisciplinary work on this emerging pathogen in Chile.
Yates’ widow, Nancy also attended the tribute and conference, which attracted more than 100 researchers from the United States, Brazil, Panama, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at April 17, 2008 01:11 PM