Dr. Allan Ronald is this year’s WinnipegRealtors Citizens Hall of Fame inductee. He joins an illustrious group of 41 other individuals inducted since the program’s inception in 1987.
Ronald was honoured for his years of dedication to medical science through his teaching, research and administration and his choice to specialize in microbiology and infectious diseases.
“One real delightful development which must give Dr. Ronald so much satisfaction, is the recent success Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory has had with its work on the Ebola vaccine,” says Rick Preston, chair of the Citizens Hall of Fame program. “His earlier and seminal work internationally treating HIV/AIDS in Africa played a part in bringing the infectious disease laboratory to Winnipeg. And now Africa, a continent where Dr. Ronald committed many years of time and research to manage and control infectious diseases, is the epicentre of another deadly disease and Winnipeg is garnering international attention for efforts to help prevent its spread.”
Fellow Manitoban and Canadian Medical Hall of Fame laureate Dr. Henry Friesen says, “His crowning achievement is the collaborative effort he initiated and nurtured with his Kenyan colleagues in the joint University of Manitoba/University of Nairobi research program that has put Manitoba and Canada in the forefront of HIV/AIDS research globally.”
Ronald trained more than 75 physicians in the infectious disease unit at the U of M’s Faculty of Medicine. Many of them hold leadership positions in Canada and internationally as a result of the educational and research program Ronald developed at the U of M. He has also received 42 awards and honours from national and international organizations.
Established in 1986 by WinnipegRealtors, the Citizens Hall of Fame is a unique program honouring citizens who brought recognition to Winnipeg or have made outstanding contributions to the city’s quality of life. Each inductee has a likeness sculpted and prominently displayed at the Citizens Hall of Fame site in Assiniboine Park.
