Japanese Professor Wins Carlos J. Finlay UNESCO Prize

HAVANA, Cuba. Dec. 14 (acn) Japanese professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka won the 2015 edition of the Carlos J. Finlay Unesco Prize for Microbiology, which will be handed over on December 21 at the capital's Academy of Sciences, reported Prensa Latina.

According to a communiqué issued today by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (Unesco), Kawaoka enjoys international renown as an expert on influenza virus and Ebola.
The genetic technology he developed made it possible to create anti-influenza vaccines against some viruses, particularly with pandemic potential, which benefited basic research in the world, allowing better understanding of the characteristics of both diseases.
The professor is the director of the International Center for Infectious Diseases of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States.
He was chosen by the director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, from recommendations by an international jury of experts in Microbiology.
The Carlos J. Finlay Unesco Prize was created in 1977 at the initiative of the Cuban government and is intended to reward meritorious work in the field of microbiology.