As an intern at the University of Washington in Seattle in the early 1960s, Palmer Beasley feared there were no more mountains to climb. He thought the world had passed him by - that all the big infectious disease discoveries might have been made.

But that was hardly the case for the man who is retiring in December 2004 as the dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health
at Houston.

R. Palmer Beasley, M.D., has become a pioneer for his groundbreaking work on hepatitis B (HBV) and liver cancer. During his long career as an epidemiologist, he has also worked on everything from HIV/AIDS, rubella, plague and rheumatoid arthritis to diarrhea/ gastroenteritis. Recently, he fought the outbreak of SARS in Taiwan and China. In addition, he organized and led a task force of UT Health Science Center experts to assist the Taiwan government's special Anti-SARS Task Force.

It was in Taiwan that Beasley found the opportunity to flex his medical muscles and begin to make the world a healthier place. As a faculty member at the University of Washington, Beasley visited the country during a major

Palmer Beasley is stepping down after 17 years as
dean of the UT School of Public Health and two years as national chairman of
the Association of Schools
of Public Health.

rubella epidemic and led field trials that established the successful vaccine for rubella, now in worldwide use.

Later, in Taiwan, he discovered he had "landed in the epicenter of a hepatitis epidemic that had gone on for decades. I was left wondering why some places are affected so badly with this. How is this virus transmitted? Infectious diseases loomed very large as the mountain to climb in public health 40 years ago."

Conventional wisdom at the time was that hepatitis B virus transmission was limited to blood transmission or dirty injection equipment. But Beasley rejected that assumption. How is blood transmitted to people in real life, he asked himself. The answer: From mother to child.

"We set up a study to test my theory," he says, "and in Taiwan
it was easy to find the necessary
large number of HBV carrier
pregnant women."

Laboratory findings successfully proved his hypothesis that transmission of the virus occurred between mother and child. It also led to Beasley's suspicion - and eventual proof - that hepatitis B caused liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death in the world. Dr. Beasley has been one of the most vigorous and effective world leaders regarding HBV immunization, convincing
the World

Health Organization to add HBV vaccine as the seventh vaccine in the global immunization program. His effort to provide immunization against HBV is saving the lives of millions worldwide.

Beasley and his family moved to Houston in 1987 when he was recruited to become the 2nd dean of the UT School of Public Health.

"Dr. Beasley's academic and educational accomplishments in the field of public health, as well as his scientific contributions to society, are enormous," James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The UT Health Science Center at Houston, said when Beasley's retirement was announced in January 2004. "He truly epitomizes global public health."

He has received four prestigious international awards. They include the 1985 King Faisal International Prize in Medicine and the 1987 Charles S. Mott General Motors Prize for Research on Cancer. King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand presented Beasley with the 1999 Prince Mahidol Award for Medicine at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Most recently he was honored by the Taiwan government with the Health Medal of the First Order for his pioneering work on hepatitis B.

His retirement as dean at the end
of 2004 coincides with the completion of his two-year term as national chairman of the Association of Schools of Public Health.