The Virchow Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2025 Virchow Prize, awarding it to Quarraisha Abdool Karim, a professor at Columbia Mailman School, and Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, a global child health expert. The prize acknowledges their significant contributions to advancing maternal, newborn, and child health equity through community-centered research.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim is an infectious diseases epidemiologist affiliated with The Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in Durban, South Africa (CAPRISA) and Columbia Mailman School. She is recognized globally for her work in HIV prevention among girls and young women. Her leadership in the CAPRISA 004 trial demonstrated that antiretroviral drugs could prevent HIV infection in women, significantly impacting global HIV prevention efforts.
Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is based at Aga Khan University in Pakistan and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. He is noted for his contributions as a pediatrician and public health scientist.
The Virchow Foundation aims to highlight efforts supporting United Nations initiatives on sustainable development goals through its annual prize. The 2025 award ceremony will occur on October 11 at Rotes Rathaus, Berlin City Hall.
In its announcement, Christoph Markschies, president of the Virchow Foundation and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW), stated that both laureates have “helped redefine the global health architecture by focusing on those historically excluded from mainstream health systems.” He emphasized their roles in integrating scientific rigor with social consciousness to advance practices in global health that are “empirically grounded, equity-driven, and politically transformative.”
Quarraisha Abdool Karim holds several notable positions: she occupies the John C. Martin Chair in Global Health at CAPRISA; serves as Pro Vice-Chancellor (African Health) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; presides over the World Academy of Sciences; acts as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV; and was recently elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.
The non-profit foundation supports United Nations efforts to improve global health by underscoring its importance within sustainable development goals.
