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University of Maryland Medical Center Epidemiologist Honored by State for Leadership in Pfiesteria Diagnoses
The physician who heads MarylandÃs effort to diagnose the effects of the Pfiesteria outbreak on humans has been named ìAdmiral of the Chesapeakeî by Gov. Parris N. Glendening in recognition of the work done by his team of disease-detecting scientists.
The award to J. Glenn Morris Jr., M.D., head of hospital epidemiology and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center, honors the researchers from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University who documented the neurological and other effects of the Pfiesteria and Pfiesteria-like toxins that killed fish in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay last summer.
Also cited was JoAnn Burkholder, M.D., of North Carolina State University, who discovered Pfiesteria in the waters of her state and advised Maryland officials about the disease.
The award was presented at the public portion of the annual Chesapeake Executive Council meeting at the Smithsonian InstitutionÃs Museum of Natural History on the Mall in Washington.
The honor can be given each year by the Governor of Maryland for outstanding efforts to
restore and preserve the Chesapeake. The Chesapeake Executive Council consists of the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the mayor of the District of Columbia, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Commission.
Dr. Morris, a world-renowned specialist in infectious diseases, who also was instrumental in devising new federal safety regulations for meat and poultry plants, said, ìThe governor is to be commended for taking quick and decisive action last summer to make sure that our waters were safe for fishing and recreation. This honor belongs to the scientists at both universities and from the state who worked as a team. We donÃt have all the answers, but finding them is always easier when there is a partnership of science and government.î
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