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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
 Mathilde Krim, Ph.D.
Founding Chariman
amfAR — The Foundation for AIDS Research
Soon after the first cases of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(AIDS) were reported in 1981, Mathilde Krim recognized that this new
disease raised grave scientific and medical questions and that it
might have important socio-political consequences. She dedicated
herself to increasing the public's awareness of AIDS and to a better
understanding of its cause, its modes of transmission and its epidemiologic
pattern. Dr. Krim also became personally active in AIDS research through
her work with interferons — natural substances now used in the
treatment of certain viral and neoplastic diseases.
In April, 1983, Dr. Krim founded the AIDS Medical Foundation (AMF),
the first private organization concerned with fostering and supporting
AIDS research. In 1985, AMF merged with a like-minded group based in
California to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)
that soon became the preeminent, national nonprofit organization devoted
to mobilizing the public's generosity in support of trail blazing
laboratory and clinical AIDS research, AIDS prevention and the development
of sound, AIDS-related public policies.
Dr. Krim received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva,
Switzerland, in 1953. From 1953 to 1959, she pursued research
in cytogenetics and cancer-causing viruses at the Weizmann Institute
of Science in Israel where she was a member of the team that first
developed a method for the prenatal determination of sex.
Dr. Krim moved to New York and joined the research staff of
Cornell University Medical School following her marriage, in 1958,
to the late Arthur B. Krim, a New York attorney, then head of United
Artists Motion Picture Company and later founder of Orion
Pictures. Starting in 1962, Dr. Krim worked as a research
scientist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
and, from 1981 to 1985, she was the Director of its Interferon
Laboratory. She now holds the academic appointment of Adjunct
Professor of Public Health and Management, Mailman School of
Public Health, Columbia University.
Dr. Krim is amfAR's Founding Chair and was, from 1990 through
2004, the Chairman of its Board.
Dr. Krim holds sixteen doctorates honoris causa and has
received many other honors and distinctions.
In August, 2000 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom — the highest civilian honor in the United States.
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