UGA professor gets prestigious public health award

A University of Georgia professor has been awarded the oldest and most prestigious award bestowed by the American Public Health Association.

According to the report by Lauren Baggett on the school’s website, Jose F. Cordero is recipient of the 2017 Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health.

The report calls Cordero an “international leader in infant and maternal health.”

He will be honored at the association’s annual meeting on Nov. 7 in Atlanta.

Originally trained as a pediatrician, Cordero worked 27 years for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. He was the founding director of the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental disabilities.

In the U.S. Public Health Service, he served as assistant surgeon general.

At UGA, he mentors graduate researchers in infectious disease studies and infant and maternal health.

He is a former national trustee of the March of Dimes Foundation.

For more on Cordero and his accomplishment visit http://www.uga.edu/.

This story was originally published October 10, 2017 at 1:50 PM with the headline "UGA professor gets prestigious public health award."