January 30, 2006

Dr. Robert Gallo Ranked 3rd Among Top Three Scientists

Baltimore, MD-Dr. Robert Gallo, founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) and a co-discoverer of HIV, ranks among the top three international biological scientists according to the University of California’s newly developed h index.

Jorge E. Hirsch, professor of Physics at the University of California at San Diego, developed the h index to quantify an individual’s cumulative career impact and relevance of scientific research. This score is based on the highest number of scientific papers produced and the number of times these papers have been cited.

“The h index may provide a useful yardstick with which to compare, in an unbiased way, different individuals…" Hirsch said in his paper.

Hirsch suggests that for faculty at major research universities an h index of 12 might be a typical value for advancement to tenure while memberships in the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America may typically be associated with an h index of 45 or higher. Dr. Gallo’s h index is 154.

Dr. Gallo is the author of more than 1,100 scientific publications and published the book, “Virus Hunting - AIDS, Cancer & the Human Retrovirus: A Story of Scientific Discovery.”

Though best known for his co-discovery of HIV, Gallo and his team in the early 1980s also pioneered the development of the HIV blood test, which enabled health care workers for the first time to screen for the AIDS virus, leading to a more rapid diagnosis while simultaneously protecting patients receiving blood transfusions.

IHV is a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) and affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. For more information visit www.ihv.org.

###

Celebrating our 20th anniversary year, UMBI is Maryland's premier biotechnology research institute within the University System of Maryland and was established in 1985. The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) consists of five major research and education centers and is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. UMBI’s centers of research include: CARB, the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology located in Rockville; CBR, the Center for Biosystems Research located in College Park; and COMB, the Center of Marine Biotechnology, MBC, the Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV, the Institute of Human Virology, all located in Baltimore. For more information, visit www.umbi.umd.edu