Thirty-One Days of Italians

The purpose of this website is to educate others about the significant contributions that those of Italian heritage have made to America. Biographies range from one to several paragraphs providing an overview, and links to a collection of selected resources are provided for more in-depth research. The information is intended to be shared and distributed; however, the work in this website is a result of massive hours of researching, organizing, creating, and writing. If you use any of the information on this website, please give proper credit by citing Thirty-One Days of Italians and adding a link to this website. Thank you.

MEDICAL

Anthony Fauci (1940) A native of Brooklyn, New York, from an early age Anthony Fauci worked in his family’s pharmacy, delivering prescriptions. He attended a Jesuit high school and college, taking philosophy and pre- med courses and graduated with his MD from Cornell University Medical College. During the Vietnam War, Dr. Fauci served as a “Yellow Beret” - a term physicians used to describe their service in the military. Dr. Fauci was a Clinical Associate with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and credits his service as giving him “a very interesting perspective on the relationship between disease and the basic science that you have to study to be able to approach disease.” Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1982 to 2022, Dr. Fauci was a key advisor to the Federal Government on AIDS issues and one of the most cited researchers and scientist in the world. In 2008, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards including the International AIDS Society Presidential Award (2016), the Research!America Legacy Award (2017), and the Institute of Human Virology Lifetime Achievement Award (2015). In 2015, he was included in Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. In 2019, Dr. Fauci was honored “for 35 Years of Leadership in HIV Policy and Research” by Aids United, and was recognized in the American Association of Immunologists inaugural class of Distinguished Fellows.  In 2020, Dr. Fauci began making headline news as a deadly pandemic swept over the world. Often cited as an authority, his medical expertise helped guide the United States through the early years of the deadly disease. In August 2022, Dr. Fauci announced his would be “stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. … leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career.” In July 2023, Dr. Fauci joined Georgetown University as a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.   NEW Official Website Introduction of Anthony S. Fauci, MD  Anthony S. Fauci, MD Biography [NIH] Meet America’s Point Man on Infectious Disease [CBS News] A Goal of Service to Humankind [NPR] Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. [August 22, 2022] Fauci Reflects on Missteps, Successes of the US Covid-19 Pandemic Response Dr. Anthony Fauci To Join Georgetown Faculty as Distinguished University Professor NEW A Portrait of Dr. Anthony Fauci [National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution] NEW Dr. Anthony Fauci Has Been Surprisingly Busy Since Retiring in 2022 [January, 2025]

Robert Charles Gallo (1937) Founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology (in partnership with Baltimore, Maryland, and the Maryland University system) Dr. Gallo is co-discoverer of the HIV strain that causes AIDS, and developed the HIV blood test. An expert in biomedical research, he also discovered the human leukemia virus (HTLV) and that chemokines, a natural compound, can stop the progression of AIDS. His discoveries have earned him worldwide awards and honors for his contributions to medicine. In his early teens, Gallo was affected by his sister’s death from leukemia, which caused his interest in learning about blood cells and developed into a career in microbiology, specializing in retroviruses (a virus that replicates itself). After receiving a degree in biology and a Doctor of Medicine, and completing his medical residency, in 1965 he was appointed a position at the National Institutes of Health, where he treated cancer patients. In 1971, Dr. Gallo was appointed head of a new research facility of the NIH National Cancer Institute, the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology.  His lab’s continued research in retroviruses led to the discovery of several types of blood cells that cause viral diseases, and to the discovery of HTLV, human T-cell leukemia virus, closely aligned with HIV. Controversies in regard to his lab’s findings emerged during the mid-1970s, and again in the mid-1980s in regard to the discovery of HIV. In 1991, the NIH and the Pasteur Institute in France agreed to share the discovery. About Dr. Robert C. Gallo NIH Eminent Scientist Profiles Science Connections: Robert C. Gallo Red Gold, The Epic Story of Blood: Robert Gallo AIDS at 20: A Look Back, A Look Ahead with World-Renowned Scientist Dr. Robert Gallo Discovering the Cause of AIDS America Hoists the White Flag in HIV War (June 7, 1991) Was Robert Gallo Robbed of the Nobel Prize? (October 7, 2008) Robert Gallo: “Facing a pandemic as if it were an invasion of Martians”