Board of Advisors

Hilary Koprowski, M.D.
Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Advanced Molecular Medicine and the Center for Neurovirology at Thomas Jefferson University

A native of Poland, Hilary Koprowski, M.D. is a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine at Warsaw University. He also received degrees from the Warsaw Conservatory and the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music in Rome. He obtained his M.D. degree in Warsaw and adopted scientific research as his life's work.

Hilary Koprowski is the discoverer of the first vaccine against poliomyelitis which was based on oral administration of attenuated polio virus. His work on polio started in 1947 and the attenuated poliovirus was fed to the first child on February 27, 1950. During the ensuing ten years, the oral polio vaccine developed first by Hilary Koprowski was used extensively for immunization against poliomyelitis in four continents. His vaccine was the first used for mass immunization trials against poliomyelitis that took place in Zaire (then the Belgian Congo) where 250,000 children were immunized orally in six weeks time. At the same time, nine million children in Poland received the vaccine preventing paralytic poliomyelitis outbreaks. Today, the Western Hemisphere has been declared free of paralytic polio and eradication of polio in the world is within sight. The pioneering work of Hilary Koprowski has made this possible.

Koprowski arrived at The Wistar Institute in 1957 and served as its director for thirty-five years. Dr. Koprowski's longtime interest in rabies led to the development of a new type of vaccine for both humans and animals. He has done pioneering work in the development of monoclonal antibodies that are effectively used for the detection of cancer antigens and immunotherapy of cancer.

Dr. Koprowski has received honorary degrees from numerous universities and he is the recipient of many honors, including: Legion D'Honneur Award from the French Government, The Order of the Lion from the King of Belgium, the French Order of Merit for Research and Invention, a Fulbright Scholarship, an appointment as Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Max Planck Institute in Munich. In 1989 he received both the San Marino Award for Medicine and the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of The Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Dr. Koprowski has received many honors in Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Cancer Research Award, the John Scott Award and in May of 1990 he was presented with the most prestigious honor of his home city, the Philadelphia Award.

Dr. Koprowski is a member of the National Academy of Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. He holds foreign membership in the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

Dr. Koprowski is the author or co-author of over 850 articles in scientific publications and is co-editor of several journals. Currently, he is the President of the Biotechnology Foundation, Inc., Director of the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University and Head of the Center for Neurovirology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Contact address:
Dr. Hilary Koprowski
Thomas Jefferson University
Room M-85, JAH, 1020 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel.: 215-503-4761
E-mail: h_koprowski@mail.jci.tju.edu
Web site: www.koprowski.net