Stephen P. (Steve) Luby, MD, is the winner of the inaugural OU International WaTER Prize. Luby is with the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
Steve was nominated by WaTER Prize Juror Daniele Lantagne of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who also prepared and delivered the PowerPoint tribute highlighting Steve's remarkable career:
Luby is best known for his seminal study on the efficacy of handwashing in preventing disease in children:
Luby, S.P. et al., 2005. Effect of handwashing on child health: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 366(9481): 225-233.
The fact that handwashing works may sound like a no-brainer, but until Luby's work, there had been no documentation of that fact.
Here are some related papers:
Download luby_waterhandwashing.pdf
The five jurors each nominated one person. In addition to Lantagne, the other jurors were: Malcolm S. Morris (Millennium Water Alliance and Living Water International); Greg S. Allgood (Procter and Gamble); Henock Gezahegne (Population Services International - Ethiopia); and yours truly.
Other nominees were: Dr. George C. Greene, III (Water Missions International); Dr. Stephen E. Silliman (University of Notre Dame); Dr. Rob Quick (CDC-Safe Water Systems); and Dr. Thomas F. Clasen (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine). They were a remarkable group, and the selection of just one was indeed difficult.
The OU WaTER Center Directors - Drs. David Sabatini, Randy Kolar, Bob Nairn, and Robert Knox, were wonderful hosts and treated us like royalty.
And mark your calendars for the first OU WaTER Center Conference, 26-27 October 2009, in Norman, OK. It will be quite an event, and Dr. Luby will receive his prize there and deliver a keynote address.
"If you want peace, work for public health." -- Dr. Steve Luby
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