Profile of Beatrice H. Hahn.

Beatrice Hahn, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, has a longstanding interest in the origins and evolution of human pathogens. She is recognized for deciphering the primate origins of human immunodeficiency viruses types 1 and 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2) and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Hahn has also developed noninvasive methods to study the zoonotic potential of microbes that infect endangered primate species in the wild. At present, Hahn is focused on developing a protective human AIDS vaccine by dissecting the HIV-1 transmission process and studying the biological properties of newly transmitted founder viruses. Over the years, Hahn has earned numerous honors, from receiving a National Institutes of Health R37 Merit Award in 2008 to election to both the American Academy of Microbiology and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. In 2002, Discover magazine named her one of “The 50 Most Important Women in Science.” Hahn credits “a lot of luck, good health, a talented team, and a good husband” for her success. Together with her husband George Shaw, another international leader in human and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) research, Hahn continues to make impressive contributions to this field of medical science. Both Hahn and Shaw are now based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.