Sanford and Gabrielle Kuvin had a dream: to promote peace in the Middle East through regional, one-to-one cooperation in medicine and science. They started the Kuvin Foundation in 1999.

 

Throughout a distinguished and varied career in medicine, Dr. Sanford F. Kuvin and his wife Gabrielle saw firsthand how politics and divisiveness are transcended through working together on a common cause. They envisioned physician-scientists of all nationalities collaborating, sharing their knowledge, and learning from each other to benefit all people.

 

Sanford Kuvin, MD, MSc, DTM&H, was the former Vice Chairman of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and was Founder and Chairman of the International Board of the Sanford F. Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He held academic appointments at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, and was formerly Professor of Medicine and Chief of Tropical Medicine at Seton Hall University Graduate School of Medicine in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Kuvin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and received his medical degree with First Class Honors from Cambridge University in England. He also had a Masters degree in Medical Microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Tropical Medicine.

 

Dr. Kuvin was well known for his research on malaria and other infectious tropical diseases. Dr. Kuvin, in association with his colleagues, was the first to demonstrate the use of the indirect fluorescent antibody test for malaria in 1962 at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 1986, Dr. Kuvin was appointed to the advisory board of the Fogarty International Center at the NIH. In addition to being a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Kuvin had been involved in malaria and infectious-tropical disease studies in Ghana, Egypt, Israel, the Panama Canal Zone, Thailand, Kenya, China, and Taiwan. Dr. Kuvin served as a member of the Legislative Task Force and Committee on Public Affairs and Political Action of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and as Chairman of the Hepatitis B Action Group of the National Coalition on Adult Immunization. Dr. Kuvin was also on the advisory board of the Americans for a Sound HIV/AIDS Policy in the early 1970's and had been an outspoken advocate to protect health care workers and patients alike against the threat of blood borne diseases including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B. He called for the universal reporting of HIV and routine HIV testing for all high-risk groups, including pregnant women.

 

Dr. Kuvin was a strong voice for improving our global surveillance capabilities in infectious and tropical diseases and had articulated the threat of emerging diseases and bioterrorism.

 

Dr. Kuvin believed that common medical challenges and scientific research have a unifying effect on colleagues of all backgrounds. He hoped to foster this spirit of unity through the Sanford and Gabrielle Kuvin Foundation and its Traveling Fellowship.

 

Dr. Sanford Kuvin passed away in 2015 and Gabrielle in 2019.

May their memories be for a blessing.