Born in Portage la Prairie, Dr. Allan Ronald is professor emeritus, faculty of medicine, University of Manitoba (U of M) and was head of the university department of internal medicine and physician-in-chief at the Health Sciences Centre. One of Canada’s foremost experts in infectious diseases, he is internationally respected, particularly in his pioneering work with HIV-AIDS in Africa. Under his leadership, the U of M became the national pre-eminent centre for research and training in that field. In 1980, he helped found the U of M/University of Nairobi World Health Organization Research and Training Program in Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which became an epicentre for collaborative research on HIV-AIDS in East Africa. Since 2000, he has been involved in a comprehensive HIV-AIDS care and prevention program in Kampala, Uganda. In 1987, he convinced the City of Winnipeg to donate land to build the new laboratory for infectious disease containment. The resulting National Virology Lab has been essential to the control of SARS, recurrent influenza epidemics and many other important diseases to Canada and the world. Dr. Ronald has served on numerous committees for Health Canada and the World Health Organization, and is currently an advisor to the International Centre for Infectious Diseases and an officer in the Order of Canada.
