London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Baron Peter Piot, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Director, and Christopher Whitty, Professor of International Health at the School, have been recognised for excellence in medical science.

They are among 40 of the UK's leading medical researchers to have been newly elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Academy Fellows are elected for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science, for innovative application of scientific knowledge or for their conspicuous service to healthcare.

Professor Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1995 until 2008, and was an Associate Director of the Global Programme on AIDS of WHO. He was knighted as a baron by the King of Belgium in 1995, and has published over 500 scientific articles and 16 books. Major areas of research have been on clinical, microbiological, epidemiological and public health aspects of sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, tuberculosis, and women's health in Africa, and, more recently, on the politics of AIDS and global health.

He said: "I am delighted to have been elected to the Academy and to see its continued support for global health. It is a great honour to stand alongside esteemed researchers from so many different areas of medicine."

Professor Whitty is a clinical epidemiologist who also works as a physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and in international public health and policy. He is currently seconded as Chief Scientific Advisor and Director of the Research and Evidence Division of the UK Department for International Development alongside his LSHTM and NHS roles.

"It is a great honour to be elected to the Academy, which recognises the excellent work of many colleagues and collaborators including from the UK, Africa and Asia, and demonstrates that the Academy continues its strong support for international and global health," he said.

Professor Sir John Bell, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "These new Fellows demonstrate the amazing talent present in the UK biomedical community. "Thanks to these exceptional individuals the UK is home to some of the best medical science in the world. I am delighted that the Academy can recognise the vital role each one of them has played in delivering health and wealth benefits to the UK and beyond. Their work has ensured scientific discoveries make rapid progress from the laboratory bench to the patient's bedside and I look forward to working with them."

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on Wednesday June 29 2011.