London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has been selected to receive the Prince Mahidol Award 2013 in the field of Public Health, together with Dr Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank.

The Prince Mahidol Award was established by the Government of Thailand in honour of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songkla. The 2013 Awards will be conferred at a conference and ceremony to take place in the Grand Palace in Bangkok on 28 January 2014.

Announcing the award on its website, the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation said: "The earnest efforts of Prof. Peter Piot, during his tenure as Executive Director of UNAIDS, and Dr Jim Yong Kim, during his leadership as Director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department, have made HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention a global agenda, enabling faster, more comprehensive treatment that has saved millions of lives and benefited people’s health throughout the world".

Sir Tim Lankester, Chair of the the School’s Council, said: "This is a great honour for Peter and the School, and on behalf of Council, I am delighted to offer our warmest congratulations". Professor Piot will become the fourth member of our School’s staff to receive this prestigious award. Pioneering epidemiologist Sir Richard Doll won the inaugural Prince Mahidol Award for Medicine in 1992, Vice-Director Professor Anne Mills became a Laureate in 2009 and Honorary Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, Founding Chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) received the award for Medicine in 2012.

This year’s Prince Mahidol Award for Medicine will be awarded to Professor David D. Ho and Dr Anthony Fauci. H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided over the meeting of the Board of Trustees on 6 November 2013 in which the final decision was made, after the Scientific Advisory Committee carefully screened a total of 64 nominations from 28 countries.