The council provides recommendations on the conduct and support of research, including training young scientists and disseminating health information derived from NIAID research. The council is composed of physicians, scientists and representatives of the public who contribute their time and expertise for a four-year term.

The new council members are: William Bertrand, Ph.D., executive director of Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer at Tulane University in New Orleans, La.; Charlotte W. Collins, J.D., an attorney with Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy in Washington, D.C.; Fred Jones, Jr., Ph.D., dean emeritus of the Graduate School at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.; and Gerald L. Mandell, M.D., chief of infectious diseases, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, Va.

NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illnesses, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.

Dr. Bertrand's expertise covers epidemiology, tropical diseases, economic development, information systems and public health. He founded the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, serving as its chair from 1992 to 1994, and is a principal investigator on a contract to establish a school of public health in Zaire.

Attorney Collins represents public and teaching hospitals, medical colleges, and related associations on health care financing policy initiatives. She serves on the Commonwealth Fund Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance, and is a past recipient of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She earned her jurisprudence degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976.

In addition to Dr. Jones' role as dean emeritus, he is also professor emeritus in the Department of Microbiology at Meharry Medical College. He has been retired for one year. Dr. Jones was a member of the National Advisory Dental Research Council and chairman of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Review Committee at the National Center for Research Resources. He has served as an ad hoc member of numerous review committees at NIH and the National Science Foundation. His research interest focused on the pathogenesis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Dr. Mandell is professor of medicine and the Owen R. Cheatham Professor of the Sciences at the University of Virginia. He has served on the NIAID Board of Scientific Counselors and has chaired the Infectious Diseases Section of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Mandell is a master of the American College of Physicians, a past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a member of the Institute of Medicine. His research focuses on phagocytic cells, for which he received a MERIT Award from NIAID. He co-edits the major textbook in the field, Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases.

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