Dr Carl W. Dieffenbach, senior advisor to the director at the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, was presented with the first Lifetime Achievement Award during the Opening Session at the CROI 2026.
The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the CROI Foundation, honors a distinguished senior investigator whose career spans decades of groundbreaking contributions to HIV research. The award recognizes individuals who have dedicated at least 25 years to advancing the understanding of the biology, prevention, or treatment of HIV, with a lasting impact on both science and the global research community. Recipients of the CROI Lifetime Achievement Award are widely recognized leaders in the field who have not previously been honored through another named lectureship at CROI.
Dr Dieffenbach’s career exemplifies these criteria through a sustained record of scientific leadership, innovation, and impact. He recently joined the Fogarty International Center as senior advisor to the director, following a distinguished tenure as director of the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he oversaw a global HIV/AIDS research portfolio exceeding $1 billion.
Dr Dieffenbach earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland in 1976 and his PhD in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University in 1984, with a focus on virology and host immune responses to viral infection, including interferon biology. Following postdoctoral research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, he was appointed assistant professor, where his laboratory investigated influenza, coronavirus, and HIV.
In 1992, Dr Dieffenbach joined DAIDS as chief of the Preclinical Therapeutics Group, spearheading initiatives that accelerated advances in HIV pathogenesis and enabled new clinical studies of novel AIDS therapies. He was promoted to director of the DAIDS Basic Sciences Program in 1996 and to division director in 2008.
Under his leadership, DAIDS-funded research played a pivotal role in the development of antiretroviral therapies and long-acting formulations for the treatment and prevention of HIV. The Division also advanced a broad scientific agenda aimed at reducing HIV incidence through vaccines and biomedical prevention strategies, developing novel approaches to HIV treatment and cure, addressing co-infections such as tuberculosis, and fostering partnerships with scientific and community stakeholders.
A major emphasis of his work has been the advancement of long-acting and sustained-release therapies, including approaches utilizing broadly neutralizing antibodies and small molecules delivered through innovative platforms. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, DAIDS also contributed to the global response by facilitating key clinical trials, including ACTIV-2 (Adaptive Platform Treatment Trial for Outpatients With COVID-19 [Adapt Out COVID]) and CoVPN (A Study of SARS CoV-2 Infection and Potential Transmission in Individuals Immunized With Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine) studies evaluating COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines.