ASTMH - Donald Mackay Medal

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Only members can submit nominations. (Nominees can be members or non-members.)

Donald Mackay Medal

Nominations for the next Donald Mackay Medal will open in 2025. View the list of past medalists below.

"The Donald Mackay Medal is presented for outstanding work in tropical health, especially relating to improvements in the health of rural or urban workers in the tropics. Preference is given to medically qualified individuals."

Please Note: Members of the Awards Committee cannot nominate anyone for a medal, cannot add a supporting letter or be nominated for a medal. Not being eligible to receive a medal also extends to all sitting members of the Board/Executive Committee. The Society encourages members to look beyond elected leadership in nominating deserving candidates. Former elected leaders are eligible.

In a long-standing partnership with the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Donald Mackay Medal is awarded in odd years by ASTMH and in even years by RSTMH for outstanding work in tropical health, especially relating to improvements in the health of rural or urban workers in the tropics. Preference is given to suitable medically qualified individuals. Dr. Donald MacKay, who was deputy Director of the Ross Institute at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, died in 1981 after many years of outstanding work in tropical occupational health, especially on the tea plantations of South Asia. He was an outstanding physician, brilliant teacher, and a man of the greatest integrity and commitment.

The regulations for the award of the Donald Mackay Medal have been agreed by the Trustees of the Mackay Memorial Fund and the Councils of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The medal is awarded annually with the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene selecting awardees in even-numbered years and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene selecting recipients in odd-numbered years. The Donald MacKay Medal was first awarded in 1990 to Ralph M. Henderson.

Donald Mackay the man

"Decades before bureaucrats had cooked up our modern alphabet soup of HMOs, ACOs and EHRs, a Scottish physician in the northeastern corner of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had found a recipe for streamlined and effective medical care in a catchment area of tens of thousands of rural villagers. Dr. Donald Mackay was Chief Medical Officer of the Sylhet tea plantations of the James Finlay Company, originally established in Bengal in 1901." ¹

¹Two leaves and a bud: the significance of the Mackay Medal and its namesake by Emeritus Member David Nalin, MD, Dr. Sci. H.C. FACP, FASTMH, FRSTMH, FIDSA, a tribute to Donald Mackay, his work with tropical laborers and his lifelong support of collaborative UK-US relationships.

Medal Recipients

	2023 Maria Friedly (Rebollo) WHO, Congo View an introduction of Dr. Friedly (Rebollo) by nominator Dr. Julie Jacobson.
	2022 Rashida Ferrand London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
	2021 Philip Thuma Macha Research Trust
	2020 Eleni Aklillu Karolinska Institute, Sweden
	2019 Christopher King Case Western Reserve University
	2018 Ahmed Hassan Fahal University of Khartoum, Sudan
	2017 Patrick Lammie Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center at the Task Force for Global Health
	2016 Moses Bockarie EDCTP, South Africa
	2015 G. Dennis Shanks Army Malaria Institute, Australia