The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) expresses its gratitude to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergic and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), for his exemplary leadership, support of and contributions to immunology research and public health policy in emerging and infectious diseases. Dr. Fauci announced in August 2022 that he would be stepping down as NIAID Director, Chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation, and Chief Medical Officer under President Biden.
For almost 39 years, Dr. Fauci has been at the helm of NIAID, where he was at the forefront of the responses to HIV, Ebola, and other public health crises faced on a global scale, most recently COVID-19. His leadership and ability to communicate scientific information to the public had a profound positive impact on public policy in these responses. His dedicated service and accomplishments have been recognized with multiple awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and many others.
An innovator in immunology and infectious disease, Dr. Fauci joined the FOCIS Annual Meeting in its 10th year to discuss how interdisciplinary immunology has affected the medical community and the world. And in 2020, during the most challenging months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci provided the opening keynote address at the FOCIS 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, where he discussed the challenges facing our global community as we navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. NIAID has also played an integral role in FOCIS from the beginning of the Federation in 2001, where NIAID maintains a permanent seat on the FOCIS Steering Committee, currently held by Dr. Daniel Rotrosen, Director of the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT).
FOCIS extends our heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Fauci for his many years of service and the vital contributions he has made to science and medicine, particularly in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of emerging and infectious diseases, and the establishment of public health policy. The global impact of his contributions is unparalleled and will continue to be instrumental in our approach to infectious disease management for years to come. FOCIS wishes him all the best in the next chapter of his work and looks forward to a continued strong relationship as we work toward our shared goals.
About Anthony S. Fauci, MD
Dr. Fauci has served as director of NIAID since his appointment to the position in 1984. He has advised seven U.S. presidents on domestic and global health issues and oversees research to prevent, diagnose and treat emerging and infectious diseases. His full bio is available at https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/anthony-s-fauci-md-bio.
About FOCIS
The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) exists to improve human health through immunology by fostering interdisciplinary approaches to both understand and treat immune-based diseases. Initially established as a cross-disciplinary meeting and now in its twentieth year of existence, FOCIS has 61 Member Societies and almost 1,000 individual members, representing over 65,000 clinician scientists. FOCIS is the world’s leader in cross-disciplinary immunology education and in training future generations of clinical immunologists. For more information on FOCIS, visit http://www.focisnet.org/.
FOCIS organizes the FOCIS Annual Meeting, THE meeting in translational immunology. Since 2001, the FOCIS meeting has brought together diverse translational immunologists to facilitate research innovations and cross-disciplinary networking opportunities that cannot be found at any other meeting. For more information on the FOCIS Annual Meeting, visit https://www.focisnet.org/meetings/.