MEDIA ADVISORY

Dr. David Heymann, the World Health Organization's assistant-director general for communicable diseases and representative of the director-general for polio eradication, will deliver the 2007 Payne Distinguished Lecture at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12. The lecture, titled "Infectious Diseases Across Borders: Public Health Security in the 21st Century," will be held in Stanford's Bechtel Conference Center in Encina Hall at 616 Serra St. It is free and open to the public.

Heymann is a leader in the global battle against infectious diseases and has made the eradication of polio a key policy goal. Since 1995, Heymann has led the World Health Organization's work on emerging and other communicable diseases and also served as chief of research activities in the WHO Global Program on AIDS.

Before joining WHO, Heymann worked for 15 years as a medical epidemiologist in sub-Saharan Africa on assignment from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He also served in India for two years in the WHO Smallpox Eradication Program. Heymann holds a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University, a medical degree from Wake Forest University and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The Payne Lectureship is named for Frank E. Payne and Arthur W. Payne, brothers who gained an appreciation for global problems through their international business operations. Their descendants endowed the annual lecture series at the Freeman Spogli Institute to raise public understanding of the complex policy issues facing the global community today and to increase support for informed international cooperation.

Editor Note:

Media are invited to meet with David Heymann from 3:30 to 4 p.m. at FSI and to cover his speech afterward. To register to attend, contact Judith Paulus at (650) 723-8490, jpaulus@stanford.edu.

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