Emeritus Professor and Senior Professional Fellow, David Molyneux, has this morning delivered the Manson Christmas Lecture at the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene(RSTMH) at the start of their Research in Progress event.
Professor Molyneux delivered the lecture, titled “Neglected Tropical Diseases: now more than just the ‘other diseases’: the post 2015 agenda”, at the start of a whole day of short oral and poster presentations outlining the unpublished research of young researchers and students from institutions across the UK. His lecture was streamed live via the RSTMH website.
Professor Molyneux was awarded the Manson Medal, the RSTMH’s highest mark of distinction in October this year. The medal is awarded tri-annually and has been presented since 1923 to the individual judged most deserving by the Society, in terms of their long standing contribution in the field of tropical medicine.
Throughout his illustrious career Professor Molyneux has worked on many insect borne diseases with particular interest in the interaction between the parasites and vectors in order to look at methods of control for the diseases. More recently he has worked tirelessly to promote Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) as deserving of increased attention by the global health community and has acted as an advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on disease control programmes for trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), onchocerciasis (river blindness), lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) and guinea worm.
David was first appointed to LSTM in 1968 and was Director between 1991 and 2000. He retired as Director in 2000 to establish what is now known as the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, (previously the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre), whilst retiring from full time work in 2008 he remains active in a part-time advisory / advocacy capacity.
He has been the recipient of several awards throughout his career, including an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University.