Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon)

Prof Peter J. Hotez MD PhD is a scientist, pediatrician, and leading advocate and expert in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine, and holds the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He also co-directs the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development and is a Senior Fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and University Professor at Baylor University. Dr. Hotez is an elected member to the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science, and Technology (TAMEST), Philosophical Society of Texas (PSOT) and served as US Science Envoy for the State Department and White House (Obama) in 2015 and 2016. He has published more than 700 scientific articles indexed in PubMed and multiple books including Forgotten People Forgotten Diseases (2008, ASM Press), Blue Marble Health (2016 JHU Press), Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism (2018 JHU Press), Preventing the Next Pandemic (2021 JHU Press), The Deadly Rise of Anti-science (2023 JHU Press), and Science Under Siege (with Michael Mann, 2025 Public Affairs). He is also the co-editor of Feigin & Cherry Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (Elsevier) and Manson’s Tropical Diseases (Elsevier). His major discoveries or co-discoveries include a low-cost Covid vaccine technology that reached 100 million people in India and Indonesia, recognized with the Hamburg Award in Biomedical Science of the National Academy of Medicine and the first hookworm anemia vaccine. He has received numerous commendations including the Yale Winslow Public Health Medal (2025), Mendel Medal from Villanova University (2024) Sigma Xi McGovern Science & Society Ward (2024), TIME100Health (2024), AAAS Scientific Freedom Award (2023), LBJ Moral Courage Award from Holocaust Museum Houston (2023), Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year (2023), ACP Dustan Award (2023), ADL Southwest Milton Popkin Award (2022), AMWA Science Comms Award (2022), AMA Scientific Achievement Award (2022), AAMC RWJ Rogers Award (2021), Ronald McDonald House Charities Medical Excellence Award (2019), Research!America Sustained Leadership Award (2018), B’nai B’rith International Distinguished Achievement Award (2017), PAHO-WHO Abraham Horwitz Award (2011). He holds honorary doctorates from CUNY School of Public Health, Roanoke College, and Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine Northwell Health