Named to honor the late Walter E. Stamm, MD, FIDSA, a past president of IDSA, this award recognizes individuals who have served as exemplary mentors. It is presented to an IDSA member or fellow who has been exceptional in guiding the professional growth of infectious diseases professionals.
2024 Winner: Morven S. Edwards, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS
Morven S. Edwards, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, is a global expert on neonatal infections and an inspiring role model for medical students, pediatric residents, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. She has mentored more than 130 infectious diseases clinical and research fellows, including three who are now deans or vice chairs, four who are division directors and 18 who are academic hospital-based full professors. Several of Dr. Edwards’ mentees also work in public health or private practice, or for the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Edwards is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she spent her career and was an attending physician at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH). A prolific clinical and bench investigator for more than 45 years, Dr. Edwards contributed to defining the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, pathogenesis and outcomes of invasive group B streptococcal disease. Her work advanced the development of a protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccine for use during pregnancy that awaits FDA approval for a multinational phase 3 trial. Much of this work was funded by the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Edwards also has enhanced awareness of and promoted screening for congenital Chagas disease, an underrecognized cause of cardiomyopathy, including through work funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a mentor, Dr. Edwards provides the support, guidance and leadership necessary for trainees to complete meaningful clinical or bench research. She gently guides trainees in incisive thinking, vigilance in gathering critical details and joy in the privilege of caring for sick children.
Admired by her colleagues, Dr. Edwards is always generous with her time and expertise. The fellows she has mentored are first authors of nearly 30% of her 167 publications. Dr. Edwards also has assisted fellows and junior faculty in preparing successful applications for funding from the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Training Grant (T-32) Awards.
Dr. Edwards received the Distinguished Physician Award from PIDS and several awards from TCH, including the Pediatric Golden Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Research Mentorship Award. She was elected president of the medical staff at TCH. She currently serves on IDSA’s Clinical Guidelines Panel on Intra-Abdominal Infections.
IDSA is proud to recognize Dr. Edwards with the 2024 Walter E. Stamm Mentor Award for preparing the current and next generation of infectious diseases physicians for success.
Past Walter E. Stamm Mentor Award Winners
| 2023 | Upinder Singh, MD, FIDSA |
| 2022 | Liise-anne Pirofski, MD, FIDSA |
| 2021 | Michael Wessels, MD, FIDSA |
| 2020 | George W. Counts, MD, FIDSA |
| 2019 | David L. Thomas, MD, MPH, FIDSA |
| 2018 | Carol A. Kauffman, MD, FIDSA, FSHEA |
| 2017 | Stephen B. Calderwood, MD, FIDSA |
| 2016 | Steve M. Holland, MD |
| 2015 | David R. Snydman, MD, FIDSA |
| 2014 | G. Ralph Corey, MD, FIDSA |
| 2013 | Lucy Tompkins, MD, PhD |
| 2012 | Robert A. Weinstein, MD, FIDSA |
| 2011 | Jane E. Koehler, MA, MD and William Schaffner, MD, FIDSA |
| 2010 | Jack S. Remington, MD, FACP, FRCP, FIDSA |
| 2009 | Richard L. Guerrant, MD, FIDSA |
| 2008 | Carol J. Baker, MD, FIDSA and Gerald Medoff, MD, FIDSA |
| 2007 | Stanley Falkow, PhD, FIDSA and Neal H. Steigbigel, MD, FIDSA |
| 2006 | Kathryn Edwards, MD, FIDSA |
| 2005 | Donald Kaye, MD |
| 2004 | Gene H. Stollerman, MD |
| 2003 | George H. McCracken, Jr., MD |
| 2002 | Leon G. Smith, MD |
| 2001 | Martin S. Hirsch, MD |