William Foege
William Herbert Foege (; born March 12, 1936) is an American physician and epidemiologist who is credited with "devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s".

Foege also "played a central role" in efforts that greatly increased immunization rates in developing countries in the 1980s.

In June 2011, he authored House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, a book on modern science, medicine, and public health over the smallpox disease.

Early life 
Foege was born March 12 1936 in Decorah, Iowa.  He was the third of six children born to William A. Foege, a Lutheran minister, and Anne Erika Foege. The family lived in Eldorado, Iowa in Fayette County, starting in 1936 and moved to Chewelah, Washington, in 1945.

In his younger days he was inspired by the life of his uncle, a Lutheran missionary to New Guinea. He became interested in science at age 13 when working at a pharmacy, and read extensively about the world (e.g., Albert Schweitzer's work in Africa) while in a body cast for several months at age 15. When a teenager he expressed a desire to practice medicine in Africa.

Education 
Foege received a B.A. from Pacific Lutheran University in 1957. He attended medical school at the University of Washington, where he became interested in public health while working "after school and on Saturdays" at the Seattle–King County Health Department.  After receiving his M.D. in 1961, he completed an internship with the United States Public Health Service hospital at Staten Island in 1961–1962.

He participated in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 1962 and 1964, assigned to Colorado. When Foege was with the EIS, he was inspired by Alexander Langmuir to pursue global health, and spent a short time with the Peace Corps in India under Charles Snead Houston. Upon reading a lecture on priorities in public health by Thomas Huckle Weller, Foege entered the Master of Public Health program at the Harvard School of Public Health where he studied with Weller. He received his M.P.H. in 1965.

Career 
Foege's research includes child survival and development, injury prevention, population, preventive medicine, and public health leadership—particularly in the developing world. He is a strong proponent of disease eradication and control and has taken an active role in the eradication of Guinea Worm Disease, polio and measles, and the elimination of river blindness.

He has held various positions during his career:

Director, Centers for Disease Control, 1977–1983
President, Co-Founder, The Task Force for Global Health, 1984-1999
Senior Fellow, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Advisory Board Member, Emory University Global Health Institute
Professor Emeritus, Rollins School of Public Health
Health Policy Fellow, The Carter Center, 1986–present
Executive Director, The Carter Center,  1986–1992
Advisory Medical Board Member, Theranos

Personal life 
Also known as "Bill Foege," he is noted for his height of . Foege and his wife Paula had three sons, the eldest of whom died in 2007.  He has been described as a "religious man"; between 1997 and 2006 he served on the Board of Regents of Pacific Lutheran University.

Awards and honors 
Abraham Lilienfeld Award, American College of Epidemiology, 1990
Fries Prize for Improving Health, James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation (formerly known as the Healthtrac Foundation), 1992
Sedgwick Memorial Medal, American Public Health Association, 1993
 Frank A. Calderone Prize, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, 1996
Honorary Doctor of Science, Harvard University, 1997
Honorary Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 1997–present
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Pacific Lutheran University, 2000
Wittenberg Award, The Luther Institute, 2001
Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, 2001
C.-E. A. Winslow Medal, Yale University, 2004
Thomas Francis, Jr. Medal in Global Public Health, University of Michigan, 2005
Public Welfare Medal, United States National Academy of Sciences, 2005
Honorary Doctor of Medical Sciences, Yale University, 2005
Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal, Sabin Vaccine Institute, 2006
 Julius B. Richmond Award, Harvard School of Public Health, 2006
The William H. Foege building, named in his honor and dedicated in 2006, houses the University of Washington School of Medicine's Departments of Bioengineering and Genome Sciences.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, 2007
Chosen as one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report, 2007
Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership, Research!America, 2008
CDC Foundation Hero Award, 2009
Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012
Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2012
Richard and Barbara Hansen Leadership Award, University of Iowa College of Public Health, 2014

Selected publications

Books and book chapters 

Foege WH. "Foreword." In:

Journal articles