Last night, in a short ceremony at the Chancellor’s Dinner, Professor Raymond F Schinazi became the first Bath alumnus to join the Chancellor’s Roll of Honour.
Funder of the Schinazi International Exchange Programme (SIEP), Professor Schinazi’s gift of $550,000 is the largest single gift from an individual the University has ever received. It is enabling two researchers each from Bath and Emory University, Atlanta, to study at the other’s organisation.
Although a professional virologist, Raymond Schinazi originally trained in Chemistry at the University of Bath where he gained two degrees in the 1970s before receiving a third honorary degree in 2006.
Professor Schinazi is currently the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics & Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology. He is also Senior Research Career Scientist and Director of the Virology/Drug Discovery Core for Emory’s Centre for AIDS Research.
He has been pivotal in the discovery and development of successful anti-HIV and anti-hepatitis drugs. His research, in collaboration with Dr Dennis C Liotta, led to the discovery of Lamivudine, the key anti-HIV drug used in the majority of AIDS cocktails today. Indeed, as many as 90% of all people treated for such infections have received a drug discovered all or in part by Professor Schinazi, a record probably not equalled by any other university scientist.
He is also an entrepreneur and has founded several successful start-up biotechnology companies.
The Chancellor, Lord Tugendhat, acknowledged that this award was made in recognition of Professor Schinazi’s “leadership, his passion for Bath and its academic research, and his generosity in supporting the University philanthropically”.