Congrats to Jillian Pintye, MPH '14 (Epi, Global Health), who won a prestigious Young Investigator Award at the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) in Melbourne, Australia, July 20-25.
The US$2,000 Young Investigator Award is jointly funded by the International AIDS Society and the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis to support young researchers who demonstrate innovation, originality, rationale and quality in the field of HIV research. One prize is awarded in each of the five conference tracks to the highest scoring abstract of young investigators less than 35 years of age.
Pintye received the award for the track on Epidemiology and Prevention Sciences. Her abstract was titled, "Male circumcision and the incidence of syphilis acquisition among male and female partners of HIV-1 serodiscordant heterosexual African couples: a prospective study." Pintye worked on her abstract with Renee Heffron, assistant professor of global health, Jared Baeten, professor of global health and Lisa Manhart, associate professor of epidemiology. Her research found that male circumcision was associated with decreased incidence of syphilis in women and HIV-infected men.
Pintye is now a PhD student in nursing at the University of Washington and works as a research assistant in the Department of Global Health.