The Walter Reed Medal may refer to the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Major Walter Reed in 1929, or a medal currently awarded by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The Walter Reed Medal was established by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1934 to be awarded periodically in recognition of meritorious achievement in tropical medicine by an individual or an institution. The story of how Walter Reed led the Yellow Fever Commission in Havana that discovered the mosquito vector of the disease is legendary. The first medals were awarded in 1936, one medal was awarded to Mrs. Emilie Lawrence Reed to posthumously honor her husband Major Walter Reed for his work on Yellow Fever, and another to The Rockefeller Foundation for its study and control of Yellow Fever. Starting in 2021, the Walter Reed Medal was awarded annually.
It is of interest that in 1942 in a spirit of ecumenism, the award was made posthumously to Carlos J. Finlay - a Cuban contemporary of Walter Reed - to whom many credit the original idea that Yellow Fever was a mosquito-borne disease.
Awardees Source:
1936 - Mrs. Walter Reed and The Rockefeller Foundation 1939 - William Castle 1940 - Herbert Clark 1942 - Carlos Finlay 1944 - James Simmons 1946 - Paul Russell 1948 - Nicolaas Swellengrebel 1950 - Rolla Dyer 1953 - Lewis Hackett 1956 - Karl Meyer 1958 - Willard Wright 1960 - Sir Gordon Covell 1962 - William Cort 1963 - Ernest Carroll Faust 1966 - Henry Meleney 1969 - Albert Sabin 1972 - Fred Soper 1975 - Robert Briggs Watson 1978 - Harry Hoogstraal 1981 - Harry Most 1984 - Wilbur Downs 1987 - William Reeves 1990 - Paul Beaver and Will Burgdorfer 1993 - Donald Henderson and George Craig, Jr. and Robert Shope 1996 - Thomas Weller 1999 - Philip Russell 2002 - Thomas P. Monath 2005 - Karl Johnson 2008 - Richard L. Guerrant 2011 - Louis Miller 2014 - Scott C. Weaver 2015 - Alan J. Magill 2017 - Scott Halstead 2020 - Myron “Mike” Levine 2021 - Dyann Wirth 2022 - William A. Petri, Jr. 2023 - Charles H. Calisher 2024 - Stephen L. Hoffman
Associated Awards
Of note, in conjunction with Walter Reed's receipt of the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States Congress established the Yellow Fever Roll of Honor on February 28, 1929 (Public Law 70-858, 45 Stat. 1409) to each of the persons listed below, "in special recognition of the high public service rendered and disabilities contracted in the interest of humanity and science as voluntary subjects for the experimentations during the yellow-fever investigations in Cuba"
Aristides Agramonte James A. Andrus John R. Bullard James Carroll Doctor R. P. Cooke A. W. Covington William H. Dean Thomas M. England Levi E. Folk Wallace W. Forbes Paul Hamann James L. Hanberry James Hildebrand Warren G. Jernegan John R. Kissinger Jesse W. Lazear John J. Moran William Olsen Walter Reed Charles G. Sonntag Edward Weatherwalks Clyde L. West
On July 2, 1956, Congress passed a law (70 Stat. 484) to include Gustaf E. Lambert on the list.
On September 2, 1958, Congress passed a law (72 Stat. 1702) to include Roger P. Ames on the list.
References
External links American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Walter Reed Medal