Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Established1907;116 years ago (1907)
Founder James Cantlie
George Carmichael Low
Headquarters London, England
President
Prof. Gail Davey

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, [1] more commonly known by its acronym RSTMH, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907–1909), was recognised as "the father of tropical medicine" by his biographer. [2] He passed the post on to Sir Ronald Ross (president 1909–1911), discoverer of the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria.

Contents

The objectives of RSTMH are "to promote and advance the study, control and prevention of diseases in man and other animals in the tropics and sub-tropics, facilitate discussion and exchange of information among those who are interested in tropical diseases and international health, and generally to promote the work of those interested in these objectives". [3]

In 1920, King George V gave his permission for RSTMH to use the Royal prefix. Queen Elizabeth II is patron of the society and the Princess Royal is an Honorary Fellow.

Location

In 2011 the Society moved from Manson House, 26 Portland Place, London, to its current premises in Northumberland House, 303-306 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7JZ[ citation needed ]

Journals

RSTMH publishes two peer reviewed journals, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene [4] and International Health . [5]

Awards and medals

RSTMH awards the Chalmers Medal and Donald Mackay Medal annually and the Manson Medal, the George Macdonald Medal and the Sir Rickard Christophers Medal triennially. [6]

Five special Centenary Medals were awarded in 1907, two for lifetime achievement and three for special achievement by an under-45 year old.[ citation needed ]

Presidents

A complete list of presidents [7] and their inaugural presidential addresses [8] can be found on the Transactions website.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickard Christophers</span> British zoologist

Brevet Colonel Sir Samuel Rickard Christophers was a British protozoologist and medical entomologist specialising in mosquitoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Manson</span> Scottish parasitologist, tropical medicine pioneer (1844-1922)

Sir Patrick Manson was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology, and was a founder of the field of tropical medicine. He graduated from University of Aberdeen with degrees in Master of Surgery, Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Law. His medical career spanned mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and London. He discovered that filariasis in humans is transmitted by mosquitoes. This is the foundation of modern tropical medicine, and he is recognized with an epithet "Father of Tropical Medicine". This also made him the first person to show pathogen transmission by a blood-feeding arthropod. His discovery directly invoked the mosquito-malaria theory, which became the foundation in malariology. He eventually became the first President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He founded the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cantlie</span> British doctor (1851–1926)

Sir James Cantlie was a British physician. He was a pioneer of first aid, which in 1875 was unknown: even the police had no knowledge of basic techniques such as how to stop serious bleeding and applying splints. He was also influential in the study of tropical diseases and in the debates concerning degeneration theory.

Sir Brian Mellor Greenwood, CBE, FRCP, FRS is a British physician, biomedical research scientist, academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Covell</span>

Sir Gordon Covell was a physician and a major general in the army of British India, and a leading global expert on Malaria disease control and eradication efforts in the middle of the 20th century. He was member of the expert committee on malaria set up by the WHO from 1948 to 1958, of which he served as the secretary. At that time, he was also an advisor to the British Ministry of Health and the Director of the Malaria Laboratory at Horton Hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Carmichael Low</span> Scottish parasitologist

George Carmichael Low was a Scottish parasitologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alimuddin Zumla</span> British-Zambian physician

Sir Alimuddin Zumla,, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, and diseases of poverty. He is known for his leadership of infectious/tropical diseases research and capacity development activities. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to public health and protection from infectious disease. In 2012, he was awarded Zambia's highest civilian honour, the Order of the Grand Commander of Distinguished services - First Division. In 2022, for the fifth consecutive year, Zumla was recognised by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers. In 2021 Sir Zumla was elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril Garnham</span> British parasitologist

Percy Cyril Claude Garnham CMG FRS, was a British biologist and parasitologist. On his 90th birthday, he was called the "greatest living parasitologist".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Killick-Kendrick</span> British parasitologist (1929–2011)

Robert Killick-Kendrick was a British parasitologist with interests in the vectors of infectious diseases, in particular phlebotomine sandflies. His work on malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and other parasitological infections are numerous and diverse. He published more than 300 articles and scientific contributions.

The Sir Rickard Christophers Medal, named in honour of Sir Rickard Christophers, is awarded every three years to individuals for their work in the field of tropical medicine and hygiene. The awarding body is the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

The Manson Medal, named in honour of Sir Patrick Manson, is the highest accolade the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene awards. Started in 1923, it is awarded triennially to an individual whose contribution to tropical medicine or hygiene is deemed worthy by the council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Manson-Bahr</span>

Sir Philip HenryManson-Bahr, CMG, DSO, MA Cantab, MB BChir, MD, MRCP, FRCP was an English zoologist and physician known for his contributions to tropical medicine. He changed his birth name to Manson-Bahr after marrying Edith Margaret Manson, daughter of the doyen of tropical medicine Sir Patrick Manson. Following his father-in-law, he devoted much of his career to tropical medicine. He was a Consulting Physician, and held high offices at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and at the London Hospital. He was knighted in 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Jenner Medal</span>

The Edward Jenner Medal is awarded occasionally by the Royal Society of Medicine to individuals who have undertaken distinguished work in epidemiological research.

Dr. Donald Mackay was deputy Director of the Ross Institute at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He worked for many years in tropical occupational health, especially on the tea plantations of South Asia. He died in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blasio Vincent Ndale Esau Oriedo</span> Kenyan doctor (1931–1966)

Dr. Blasio Vincent Oriedo, in full Dr. Blasio Vincent Ndale Esau Oriedo was an African epidemiologist and a parasitological scientist known for his contributions to tropical medicine and work to stem disease epidemics in colonial and postcolonial Kenya, the countries of East and Central Africa, and the Sudan. He is credited for saving thousands of native African lives from infectious disease. Dr. Oriedo was a recipient of the Extramural Medical Research Grant presented by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Michael Gilles</span>

Herbert Michael Gilles was a Maltese-British physician and professor of tropical medicine, recognized as a leading expert in his field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalmers Medal</span>

The Chalmers Medal is the major mid-career award of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The Chalmers Medal was initially awarded biennially, then annually, "in recognition of research of outstanding merit contributing to our knowledge of tropical medicine or tropical hygiene" and now "to researchers in tropical medicine or international health who obtained their last relevant qualification between 15 and 20 years ago, allowing for career breaks, who demonstrate evidence of mentoring and professional development of junior investigators, and other forms of capacity-building in line with Dr Chalmers’ own values". It is named in honour of Albert John Chalmers MD, FRCS, DPH, who was acclaimed for his work on tropical medicine on the Indian sub-continent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Molyneux</span> British parasitologist

David Hurst Molyneux CMG is a British parasitologist who served as the Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (1991–2000), where, as of 2018, he is an emeritus professor. He previously held the Chair of Biological Sciences at the University of Salford (1977–91), where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Science. His research and advocacy have focused on what are now known as neglected tropical diseases, and Michael Barrett credits him as among the earliest advocates of the campaign to focus international attention on this group of diseases in the early-to-mid 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Crump</span> New Zealand-born infectious diseases physician, microbiologist, epidemiologist

John Andrew Crump MB ChB, MD, DTM&H, FRACP, FRCPA, FRCP is a New Zealand-born infectious diseases physician, medical microbiologist, and epidemiologist. He is Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Global Health at the University of Otago and an adjunct professor of medicine, Pathology, and Global Health at Duke University. He served as inaugural co-director of the Otago Global Health Institute, one of the university's research centres. His primary research interest is fever in the tropics, focusing on invasive bacterial diseases and bacterial zoonoses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Macdonald (malariologist)</span>

George Macdonald was a British physician who was Professor of Tropical Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research concentrated primarily on malaria, its epidemiology and control. He was the author of many papers on the mathematical analysis of transmission of tropical infections and the author of The Epidemiology and Control of Malaria, published in 1957.

References

  1. "RSTMH-About us". RSTMH. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  2. Sir Philip Henry Manson-Bahr (1962). Patrick Manson, the father of tropical medicine. T. Nelson. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  3. "RSTMH home page" . Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  4. Transactions. Retrieved from http://trstmh.oxfordjournals.org/ on 27 Jan 2014.
  5. International Health Journal. Retrieved from http://inthealth.oxfordjournals.org/ on 27 Jan 2014.
  6. "RSTMH Awards". Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
  7. Hay, S.I. and McHugh, G.M. (2013). Presidential addresses of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: 1907–2013. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 107 (10):603-607. Retrieved from http://trstmh.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/10/603.full on 27 January 2014.
  8. Presidential addresses of the RSTMH retrieved from http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/trstmh/presidential_addresses.html on 27 January 2014