Since 1981, at our Banquet, which is usually held on Saturday evening, a speaker has been chosen to present a subject of great general interest to all meeting attendees. In 2008, this lecture was endowed by a generous gift from the DuPonts “…in appreciation of their involvement in the Association with its fellowship and broad science not seen in subspecialty organizations.” The inaugural lecture, entitled “Love, Death, and Commitment: Twenty-three Years of HIV and Genocide Prevention in Africa,” was delivered in 2009 by Susan Allen, MD, MPH, Director, Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.
Herbert (Bert) L. DuPont, MD, began his academic career as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer with the US Centers for Disease Control assigned to the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. After several years on the Maryland faculty, he moved to the University of Texas Medical School at Houston as the school's founding director of its program in infectious diseases and microbiology. At the time of the creation of the lectureship, he was a world-renowned authority to traveler's diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis; Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Texas School of Public Health; Chief of Internal Medicine, St Luke's Episcopal Hospital; and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine. Dr DuPont was elected to the ACCA in 1985, served as the Recorder from 2000 to 2005, as President from 2006 to 2007, and as a Council member from 2000 to 2009.
Margaret (Peggy) W. DuPont, MA, worked side-by-side with Bert throughout much of his astonishingly productive career as Research Associate at the University of Texas School of Public Health. In this capacity, she provided administrative oversight for myriad international clinical trials they conducted as husband and wife, and also supervised a popular summer research elective in Mexico that provided academic international education for more than 200 students beginning in 1980.