The Oswald Avery Award for Early Achievement recognizes outstanding achievement in an area of infectious diseases by an IDSA member or fellow who is 45 or younger (on Dec. 31 of the year preceding the IDWeek at which the award is given). The award is based on overall achievement, not usually a single study.
2024 Winner: Pranita Tamma, MD, MHS
Pranita Tamma, MD, MHS, is recognized as an international leader in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with gram-negative infections, particularly those exhibiting antimicrobial resistance. She is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Tamma has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles that have significantly advanced the field of AMR.
Examples of her practice-changing work include conducting the first comparative effectiveness study establishing increased mortality with the use of piperacillin-tazobactam for the treatment of ESBL bloodstream infections; identifying cefepime as a preferred treatment option for AmpC-producing Enterobacterales infections; defining the optimal duration of therapy for gram-negative bloodstream infections, including those caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales; and demonstrating improved clinical outcomes with extended-infusion beta-lactam therapy for AMR infections. She led a highly cited review investigating the role of combination antibiotic therapy — changing the long-standing practice of routinely adding aminoglycosides to beta-lactam therapy for the treatment of invasive gram-negative infections.
Additionally, Dr. Tamma actively conducts translational research to investigate novel mechanisms of AMR in gram-negative organisms. For example, she led the first report of a United States patient with an invasive Escherichia coli infection exhibiting resistance to all available beta-lactam antibiotics, in large part due to the presence of a four-amino acid duplication in PBP3, essentially inactivating a key target site of multiple antibiotics. She led several studies uncovering diverse acquired resistance of resistance by Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to the antibiotic cefiderocol. Her investigations have advanced our understanding of “hot spots” in the bacterial genome of P. aeruginosa prone to amino acid substitutions translating to resistance to several cephalosporin-based antibiotics.
Dr. Tamma is currently leading two large federally funded clinical trials: one investigating the role of phage therapy in reducing the bacterial burden of P. aeruginosa and the second comparing the clinical outcomes of patients with gram-negative bloodstream infections randomized to intravenous or early oral antibiotic therapy.
Additionally, Dr. Tamma is the lead author of the IDSA Guidance on the Treatment of Antimicrobial-Resistant Gram-Negative Infections, is an editor at Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, is one of twelve international voting members of the Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Subgroup and is a voting member of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group’s Gram-Negative Resistance Committee. Dr. Tamma is very passionate about mentoring and has mentored over 40 junior faculty, fellows, residents and medical students. She describes mentoring as one of the most enjoyable parts of her job.
Finally, Dr. Tamma actively treats children with infectious diseases in both the inpatient and outpatient setting and has been awarded numerous teaching awards from medical students, housestaff, fellows and colleagues at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
IDSA is pleased to recognize Dr. Tamma with the 2024 Oswald Avery Award for Early Achievement.
Past Oswald Avery Award Winners
| 2023 | Talia Swartz, MD, PhD, FIDSA |
| 2022 | Nadine Rouphael, MD, FIDSA |
| 2021 | Michail Lionakis, MD, ScD, FIDSA |
| 2020 | Sallie R. Permar, MD, PhD |
| 2019 | Nasia Safdar, MD, MS, PhD, FIDSA, FSHEA |
| 2018 | Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS, FIDSA |
| 2017 | William J. Steinbach, MD |
| 2016 | Susan S. Huang, MD, MPH, FIDSA, FSHEA |
| 2015 | Eric R. Houpt, MD, FIDSA |
| 2014 | Sarah E. Cosgrove, MD, MS, FIDSA, FSHEA and Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, FIDSA |
| 2013 | Cesar A. Arias, MD, MSc, PhD, FIDSA |
| 2012 | Dan A. Barouch, MD, PhD |
| 2011 | Umesh Parashar, MBBS, MPH |
| 2010 | Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD, PhD, FIDSA |
| 2009 | Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD, PHD |
| 2008 | Vance G. Fowler, Jr., MD, MHS |
| 2007 | Pablo C. Okhuysen, MD, FIDSA |
| 2006 | Cynthia G. Whitney, MD, MPH |
| 2005 | James E. Crowe, MD |
| 2004 | B. Brett Finlay, PhD |
| 2003 | Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD |
| 2002 | Matthew K. Waldor, MD, PhD |
| 2001 | David A. Relman, MD |
| 2000 | Michael S. Donnenberg, MD |
| 1999 | William A. Petri, Jr., MD, PhD |
| 1998 | Joseph W. St. Geme, III, MD |
| 1997 | Samuel I. Miller, MD |
| 1996 | David D. Ho, MD |
| 1995 | Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH |
| 1994 | Mark Klempner, MD |
| 1993 | Claire Broome, MD |
| 1992 | Martin Blaser, MD |
| 1991 | Marcus Horwitz, M.D. |
| 1990 | Jerrold Ellner, MD |
| 1989 | Henry Murray, MD |
| 1988 | Walter Stamm, MD |
| 1987 | John Gallin, MD |
| 1986 | Charles Dinarello, MD |
| 1985 | Dennis Kasper, MD |
| 1984 | Adel Mahmoud, MD, PhD |
| 1983 | Anthony Fauci, MD |
| 1982 | George Miller, PhD |
| 1981 | Gerald Keusch, MD |
| 1980 | Robert Purcell, MD |
| 1979 | Stanley Falkow, PhD |
| 1978 | King Holmes, MD, PhD |
| 1977 | Lowell Glasgow, MD, MS |
| 1976 | Sheldon Wolff, MD |
| 1975 | Kenneth Warren, MD |
| 1974 | Malcolm Artenstein, MD and Emil Gotschilch, MD |
| 1973 | Frank Austen, MD |
| 1972 | Zanvil Cohn, MD |
| 1971 | Jonathan Uhr, MD |
| 1970 | Hans Mueller-Eberhard, MD, DMSc |
| 1969 | Robert Chancock, MD |
| 1968 | Robert Good, MD, PhD |