Richard P. Wenzel, MD, MSc, is Immediate Past-President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), and professor and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, VA. He is also Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs.

For 8 years (1992 to 2000), he was a member of the editorial board of The New England Journal of Medicine, and in September 2001, he became the journal’s first Editor-at-Large. He is the prolific author of over 500 publications, the editor of six textbooks and the lead editor of A Guide for Infection Control in the Hospital, already translated into eight languages and over 65,000 copies have been given free of charge to health care workers in developing countries... His popular book, Stalking Microbes, was released in the summer of 2005.

Dr. Wenzel's research has focused on the prevention and control of hospital-acquired infections, especially bloodstream infections (BSIs) and sepsis. He is a nationally recognized expert on antibiotic resistance and its impact.

Dr. Wenzel is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and a charter member of the Surgical Infections Society. He is also former President of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and former Councillor of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He has trained 50 hospital epidemiologists worldwide.

He has received numerous awards for research and teaching, including the Abbott Achievement Award for Outcomes Research, the Humboldt Research Award for Senior US Scientists, a Senior International Fogarty Fellowship Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Woodward Award from the US Navy for "vision and leadership in public health and preventive medicine" (1997) and the Bruce Award from the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM) for "distinguished contribution in preventive medicine" (1999). In November 2001, the NIH announced that Dr. Wenzel was one of 10 "Great Teachers" identified in the 2001-2002 series on “Contemporary Best Teachers”. In 2002, the University of Iowa gave him the Distinguished Achievement Award for work on nosocomial infections, and in 2003 Jefferson Medical College gave him the Distinguished Alumnus Award. The ACP awarded Dr. Wenzel with a Mastership at the 2002 annual meeting. In 2004, the Medical College of Virginia Foundation honored him with the W. Robert Irby Award for Philanthropic Leadership.

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