Alfred Sommer

Last updated
Alfred Sommer
Alfred Sommer.jpg
Alfred Sommer
Born (1942-10-02) October 2, 1942 (age 80)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality United States
Alma mater Union College (B.S., 1963)
Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1967)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (M.H.S., 1973)
Known for Vitamin A deficiency
Blindness prevention
Awards Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Fries Prize for Improving Health (2008)
American Academy of Ophthalmology Laureate (2011)
Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research (2005)
National Academy of Sciences (2001)
Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (1997)
National Academy of Medicine (1992)
Scientific career
Fields Ophthalmology
Epidemiology
International Health

Alfred (Al) Sommer (born October 2, 1942) is a prominent American ophthalmologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research on vitamin A in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that dosing even mildly vitamin A deficient children with an inexpensive, large dose vitamin A capsule twice a year reduces child mortality by as much as 34 percent. [1] The World Bank and the Copenhagen Consensus list vitamin A supplementation as one of the most cost-effective health interventions in the world. [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Sommer was born on October 2, 1942 in New York City. [4] He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York and graduated summa cum laude in 1963. At Union College, Sommer received a Bachelor of Science in biology, with a minor in history. [5] Sommer attended Harvard Medical School and obtained his MD in 1967. He served as a medical intern and resident at Harvard University's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (formerly Beth Israel Hospital) from 1967 to 1969. [4]

In 1969, Sommer joined the Public Health Service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and moved overseas with his family to work in the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan), [6] where he conducted the first formal epidemiologic investigation of a major disaster: the 1970 cyclone that washed away a quarter of a million people in a single night. [7] He assisted Bangladeshis in their Liberation War and, in 2013, the Bangladesh government bestowed upon him the “Friends of Liberation War Honour” for his contributions during the revolution. [8]

In 1972, Sommer returned to the United States and continued his education at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (which became known as the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2000). Upon completing his Master of Health Sciences degree in epidemiology there, Sommer spent three years as a resident and fellow in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute (associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) from 1973 to 1976. [4] [6]

Career

Following his training at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Sommer and his family moved to Indonesia, where he began his groundbreaking work on vitamin A deficiency. Following that, he moved to London as a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Ophthalmology. Then, in 1980, he returned to the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute as the founding director of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology. [9] He held this position until 1990 when he assumed the position of dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While serving as the Dean of the Bloomberg School, Sommer expanded both the faculty and student bodies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate and dramatically expand the School's physical plant and its research and educational programs. [10] Sommer's efforts helped the school attain the #1 spot on the U.S. News & World Report Graduate Schools of Public Health ranking, a prestigious title it still holds to this day. [11] Sommer served as dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health until 2005, [12] when he returned to work as a professor and researcher of both epidemiology and ophthalmology. Sommer is currently a Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor, [13] inaugural Gilman Scholar, [14] and Dean Emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. [12]

In the mid-1980s, Sommer initiated and led the development of one of the first, and still rigorously updated, clinical guidelines of any medical specialty: the "Preferred Practice Patterns" of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. [15]

Research

Vitamin A-deficiency and child mortality research

Sommer initiated his research on the causes and effects of vitamin A deficiency while still a resident at the Wilmer Institute. [16] After completing his residency, Sommer moved his family to Indonesia for three years to continue this work in depth. He was appointed Visiting Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Padjadjaran in Indonesia. Sommer conducted a sequence of observational and intervention trials in Indonesia, and subsequently elsewhere, that led to his discovery that Vitamin A deficiency reduces immune responsiveness, and therefore resistance to deadly infectious diseases, especially diarrhea and measles. [1] [2]

Sommer was forced to repeat his experiments multiple times before convincing the scientific community of the importance of Vitamin A deficiency in contributing to the death and blindness of nearly a million children every year, and the effectiveness of one large oral dose of vitamin A, twice a year, in preventing these outcomes. [17] Sommer solidified scientific support by organizing an international conference on the issue at the Rockefeller Foundation center for study in Bellagio, Italy. The scientists at the conference concluded that almost any intervention that substantially improved children's vitamin A status, including the use of twice yearly large dose capsules, which was the focus of Sommer's research, was shown to reduce the child mortality rate of these Vitamin A deficient children by as much as 34 percent. [18] He also conducted studies in which he supplemented Nepalese women of childbearing age with Vitamin A/beta-carotene and observed a 45% reduction in the maternal mortality rate. [19] Sommer and his colleagues conducted further trials on the impact of dosing newborn children in populations that were vitamin A deficient vitamin A supplementation in newborns, repeatedly demonstrating that it reduced newborn mortality by 10-20%. [1] [2] [20]

Other pioneering discoveries

Sommer made a number of other discoveries that have led to major advances in global health care and policies, including demonstrating that measurement of mid-arm-circumference (MUAC) is a simple and effective tool for conducting nutritional surveillance and identifying children and populations at high risk of dying from malnutrition; [21] that the easily assessed appearance of the nerve fiber layer in the retina is an early, accurate predictor of glaucomatous optic nerve damage indicating the need to initiate glaucoma therapy; [22] and that vaccination for smallpox as long as 6 days after infection can prevent the disease, [23] an observation that forestalled mass vaccination of primary responders following 9/11. [24]

Recognition

Book written by Alfred Sommer in 1980 to teach other Ophthalmologist how to do better clinical research Epidemiology and Statsitics for the Ophthalmologist By Alfred Sommer.jpg
Book written by Alfred Sommer in 1980 to teach other Ophthalmologist how to do better clinical research

Alfred Sommer has received multiple awards for his research, including the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research (1997), [25] the Danone International Prize for Nutrition (2001), [26] the Dan David Prize [27] (2013), and the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research, [28] the Lucien Howe Medal of the American Ophthalmological Society, [29] the Laureate Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology [30] (2011), the Duke Elder and Gonin Medals of the International Council of Ophthalmology, [31] the Pollin Prize in Pediatric Research (Columbia University), [32] the E.H. Christopherson Lectureship (American Academy of Pediatrics), [33] the Prince Mahidol Award (from the King of Thailand), [34] and the Warren Alpert Research Prize from Harvard Medical School in 2003, [35] among other honors. [12] The 2005 PBS documentary Rx for Survival featured Sommer as a "global health champion." [36] Several institutions around the world have bestowed honorary doctoral degrees to Dr. Sommer, including Johns Hopkins University and McGill University. [37] [38] Sommer is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Current research interests

Sommer's current research interests include the diagnosis and management of glaucoma, improved child survival and blindness prevention strategies, and micronutrient interventions, in addition to other projects in both epidemiology and ophthalmology. [12]

Sommer Scholars and other Named Honors at JHSPH

In 2004, Michael Bloomberg, former chair of the Johns Hopkins University's Board of Trustees, donated $22 million to establish the Sommer Scholars Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in honor of Dr. Sommer. The programs aims to "recruit the next generation of public health leaders to devise new, effective interventions to improve global health." [39] Additionally, as a consequence of gifts from other supporters, the Bloomberg School's Department of Molecular Microbiology is chaired by the "Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor"; [40] the "Dana Center of the Wilmer Eye Institute is led by the "Alfred Sommer Professor of Ophthalmology"; [41] and the main auditorium of the Bloomberg School is named "Sommer Hall."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johns Hopkins Hospital</span> Hospital in Maryland, United States

The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million by city merchant, banker/financier, civic leader and philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795–1873). Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the founding institutions of modern American medicine and the birthplace of numerous famous medical traditions including rounds, residents and house staff. Many medical specialties were formed at the hospital including neurosurgery, by Harvey Cushing and Walter Dandy; cardiac surgery by Alfred Blalock; and child psychiatry, by Leo Kanner. Attached to the hospital is the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center which serves infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multivitamin</span> Dietary supplement containing vitamins

A multivitamin is a preparation intended to serve as a dietary supplement with vitamins, dietary minerals, and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids, or injectable formulations. Other than injectable formulations, which are only available and administered under medical supervision, multivitamins are recognized by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a category of food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health</span> American private university

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. As the first independent, degree-granting institution for research in epidemiology and training in public health, and the largest public health training facility in the United States, the school is ranked first in public health in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and has held that ranking since 1994. The school is ranked second for public health in the world by Shanghai Rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitamin A deficiency</span>

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) or hypovitaminosis A is a lack of vitamin A in blood and tissues. It is common in poorer countries, especially among children and women of reproductive age, but is rarely seen in more developed countries. Nyctalopia is one of the first signs of VAD, as the vitamin has a major role in phototransduction. Xerophthalmia, keratomalacia, and complete blindness can follow if the deficiency is more severe.

David Anthony Newsome M.D. FARVO was a scientist, ophthalmologist, inventor, and author. He studied the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and proposed the usefulness of zinc supplements to slow the rate of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration.

M. Christine "Chris" Zink is the director of the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also holds professorships in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins and in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Zink researches the response of the immune system to retroviruses such as HIV and is currently investigating an animal model of antiretroviral therapy and the potential of a common antibiotic to prevent HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

Douglas Jabs is an American ophthalmologist and an expert in clinical research in the fields of ophthalmology and uveitis.

Richard D. Semba is an American ophthalmologist. He grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and received his education at Yale University, Stanford University, and Johns Hopkins University. He did his residency training in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute (1984–1987) and joined the faculty following his residency. Semba is currently the W. Richard Green Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is Affiliated Faculty with the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University. Semba has done field research in Indonesia, Malaysia, Liberia, Malawi, Uganda, Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico. His research interests include nutrition and aging, sustainable diets and food systems, and the history of medicine and nutrition. The Semba laboratory at Johns Hopkins University applies mass spectrometry, proteomics, and metabolomics to gain insight into human aging and aging-related diseases. Dr. Semba has authored or co-authored over 400 scientific peer-reviewed publications. He is author of three books: Handbook of Nutrition and Ophthalmology, The Vitamin A Story: Lifting the Shadow of Death, and A Perfect Vision: Catalogue of the William Holland Wilmer Rare Book Collection.

Marie Diener-West is the Helen Abbey and Margaret Merrell Professor of Biostatistics and the chair of the Master of Public Health Program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Diener-West is an editor for the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group and a member of the American Public Health Association, American Statistical Association, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the Society for Clinical Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships</span>

Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships were established as part of a $350 million investment by Michael Bloomberg, Hopkins Class of 1964, to Johns Hopkins University in 2013. Fifty faculty members, ten from Johns Hopkins University and forty recruited from institutions worldwide, will be chosen for these endowed professorships based on their research, teaching, service, and leadership records. In December 2021, it was announced that the program would double in size, with an additional fifty professors bringing the total to one hundred scholars, made possible by a new investment by Michael Bloomberg. With recruitment beginning in 2022, the majority of the new professors will be recruited to work in clusters. These faculty-developed interdisciplinary clusters will recruit Bloomberg Distinguished Professors and junior faculty to Johns Hopkins University with the aim of conducting transformational research in crucial areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arturo Casadevall</span> Cuban-American scientist

Arturo Casadevall is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease research, with a focus on fungal and bacterial pathogenesis and basic immunology of antibody structure-function. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

Cochrane Eyes and Vision (CEV) is a collaboration of researchers and healthcare professionals who prepare systematic reviews to study interventions pertaining to the treatment of eye disease and visual impairment. Though many of the systematic reviews focus on common eye diseases, reviews have been prepared for varied eye topics, including screening prevention and rarer eye diseases. CEV was officially registered in 1997, and currently operates from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research. The joint Co-ordinating Editors of CEV are Mr Richard Wormald and Dr Jennifer Evans.

The Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering has both undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering programs located at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Helen Abbey was an American biostatistician known for her research on the health effects of radiation and on infections among Native Americans, and for her prolific mentoring of students in statistics. She was affiliated with Johns Hopkins University for over 50 years.

Mathuram Santosham is an Indian American physician who is Professor and Chair at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Santosham is best known for his work on oral rehydration therapy and childhood vaccines, with a focus on supporting people from indigenous communities.

David Wesley Dowdy is an American infectious disease epidemiologist. He is the B. Frank and Kathleen Polk Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Michael John Klag is an American internist and epidemiologist. For eight years, he was the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine and was the first Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Jessica Fanzo is an American scientist. She is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food and Agriculture Policy and Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Fanzo was an assistant professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University.

Joanne Katz is an epidemiologist, biostatistician, and Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds joint appointments in the Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Ophthalmology. Her expertise is in maternal, neonatal, and child health. She has contributed to the design, conduct and analysis of data from large community based intervention trials on nutritional and other interventions in Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal and other countries.

Sheila Kay West is an American ophthalmologist who is the El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. She is also the Vice Chair for Research.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sommer, A; Tarwotjo, I; Djunaedi, E; West, KP Jr; Loeden, AA; Tilden, R; Mele, L (1986). "Impact of vitamin A supplementation on childhood mortality. A randomised controlled community trial". Lancet . 24 (8491): 1169–1173. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(86)91157-8. PMID   2871418. S2CID   8874283.
  2. 1 2 3 World Development Report 1993. World Bank, 1993.
  3. ↑ Copenhagen Consensus 2008. http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=953 Accessed on 2009-03-19.
  4. 1 2 3 Day, Harry (1980–1990). "Sommer, Alfred - c.1980-1990". The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives. Archived from the original on 1990. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  5. ↑ Union College Magazine. Spring 2014. https://www.union.edu/news/stories/2014/05/supportive-teachers-make-all-the-difference.php Accessed on 2017-05-15.
  6. 1 2 McCollum, Elmer (1980–1990). "Sommer, Alfred - c.1980-1990". The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives. Archived from the original on 1990. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  7. ↑ Sommer, A.; Mosley, W. H. (1972-05-13). "East Bengal cyclone of November, 1970. Epidemiological approach to disaster assessment". Lancet. 1 (7759): 1029–1036. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)91218-4. ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   4112181.
  8. ↑ Wood-Wright, Natalie. "Sommer Named a "Foreign Friend" by Government of Bangladesh". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  9. ↑ "Our History | the Dana Center at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute". www.hopkinsmedicine.org. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  10. ↑ Shea, Dennis (May 16, 2005). "Klag Named Dean of Bloomberg School of Public Health". Headlines@Hopkins. JHU Press Releases. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Best Public Health Programs". U.S. News & World Report. 2015. Archived from the original on 2017-03-07. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Alfred Sommer Biography, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  13. ↑ "University Distinguished Service Professorships". professorships.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  14. ↑ JHU Gazette March 11, 2011 Accessed 2017-05-15
  15. ↑ Sommer, Alfred; Abbott, Richard L.; Lum, Flora; Hoskins, H. Dunbar (2008). "PPPs-Twenty Years and Counting". Ophthalmology. 115 (12): 2125–2126. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2008.09.032. PMID   19041472.[ permanent dead link ]
  16. ↑ Sommer, Alfred (1976). "Assessment of xerophthalmia and the mass vitamin A prophylaxis program in El Salvador (September 1973 - December 1974)". Environmental Child Health. 22 (3): 135–148. doi:10.1093/tropej/22.3.135. PMID   1051429.
  17. ↑ "A bridge too near". www.unicef.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  18. ↑ Sommer, A (1992). "Vitamin A deficiency and childhood mortality (Conference at Bellagio)". Lancet. 339 (8797): 864. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(92)90298-h. S2CID   54432530.
  19. ↑ West, K. P.; Katz, J.; Khatry, S. K.; LeClerq, S. C.; Pradhan, E. K.; Shrestha, S. R.; Connor, P. B.; Dali, S. M.; Christian, P. (1999-02-27). "Double blind, cluster randomised trial of low dose supplementation with vitamin A or beta carotene on mortality related to pregnancy in Nepal. The NNIPS-2 Study Group". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 318 (7183): 570–575. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7183.570. ISSN   0959-8138. PMC   27760 . PMID   10037634.
  20. ↑ Klemm, Rolf D. W.; Labrique, Alain B.; Christian, Parul; Rashid, Mahbubur; Shamim, Abu Ahmed; Katz, Joanne; Sommer, Alfred; West, Keith P. (2008-07-01). "Newborn Vitamin A Supplementation Reduced Infant Mortality in Rural Bangladesh". Pediatrics. 122 (1): e242–e250. doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3448. ISSN   0031-4005. PMID   18595969. S2CID   27427577.
  21. ↑ Sommer, A.; Loewenstein, M. S. (March 1975). "Nutritional status and mortality: a prospective validation of the QUAC stick". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 28 (3): 287–292. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/28.3.287 . ISSN   0002-9165. PMID   1119424.
  22. ↑ Sommer, A.; Miller, N. R.; Pollack, I.; Maumenee, A. E.; George, T. (December 1977). "The nerve fiber layer in the diagnosis of glaucoma". Archives of Ophthalmology. 95 (12): 2149–2156. doi:10.1001/archopht.1977.04450120055003. ISSN   0003-9950. PMID   588106.
  23. ↑ Sommer, A. (April 1974). "The 1972 smallpox outbreak in Khulna Municipality, Bangladesh. II. Effectiveness of surveillance and containment in urban epidemic control". American Journal of Epidemiology. 99 (4): 303–313. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a121615. ISSN   0002-9262. PMID   4818720.
  24. ↑ Jamrog, Diane C. (2007). "Modeling responses to anthrax and smallpox attacks" (PDF). Lincoln Laboratory Journal. 17: 1.[ permanent dead link ]
  25. ↑ Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award. http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/1997clinical.htm Archived 2009-04-23 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 2009-03-19
  26. ↑ Danone Institute Prize for Nutrition. http://www.danoneinstitute.org/danone_institute_prize_for_nutrition/awardees/index.php Archived 2009-03-16 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 2009-03-19
  27. ↑ www.dandavidprize.org http://www.dandavidprize.org/laureates/2013/159-future-preventive-medicine/491-dr-alfred-sommer . Retrieved 2017-05-15.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. ↑ Alfred Sommer - Helen Keller Foundation (with video)
  29. ↑ "Lucian Howe Medal Recipients". www.aosonline.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  30. ↑ "2011 Laureate Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS - American Academy of Ophthalmology". www.aao.org. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  31. ↑ "International Council of Ophthalmology : About the ICO : Award and Medal Recipients". www.icoph.org. Archived from the original on 2017-07-12. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  32. ↑ "ALFRED SOMMER AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS POLLIN PRIZE". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  33. ↑ . American Academy of Pediatrics. "AAP Gateway" (PDF). AAP News. 17 (6). 2000-12-01. ISSN   1073-0397.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  34. ↑ "Prince Mahidol Award Foundation under the Royal Patronage". www.princemahidolaward.org. Archived from the original on 2017-07-08. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  35. ↑ "Prize Recipients | warrenalpert.org". www.warrenalpert.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  36. ↑ Rx for Survival: Global Health Champions. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/champions/alfred_sommer.html Accessed on 2009-03-19.
  37. ↑ McGill’s Honorary Degree recipients for Spring Convocation 2019. https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/mcgills-honorary-degree-recipients-spring-convocation-2019-296322 Accessed on 2022-11-08.
  38. ↑ Johns Hopkins announces seven honorary degree recipients for 2022 Commencement. https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/05/06/johns-hopkins-honorary-degrees-2022/ Accessed on 2022-11-08.
  39. ↑ New Scholarship to Recruit Public Health Leaders of The Future. http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/PR_2004/Sommer_Scholars.html
  40. ↑ "Alfred and Jill Sommer Professorship and Chairmanship in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology". professorships.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  41. ↑ "Alfred Sommer Professorship in Ophthalmology". professorships.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.