Award Winning Virologist • Researcher • Scholar • Innovator • Humanitarian
Dr. Richard Whitley is a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Vice Chairman for Research in the Department of Pediatrics and Co-Division Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He also holds the titles of Loeb Eminent Scholar Chair in Pediatrics; Professor of Microbiology, Medicine, & Neurosurgery; Senior Scientist, Department of Gene Therapy; Co-Founder, Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance; and Associate Director, Drug Discovery and Development, Comprehensive Cancer Center.
While growing up in Nutley, New Jersey, Dr. Whitley was an active member of St. Paul’s Congregational Church and graduated from Nutley High School in 1963. He then attended Duke University, where he received his B.A. in Chemistry in 1967, followed by earning his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1971.
After attaining his medical degree, Dr. Whitley completed his pediatric internship/residency and fellowship in infectious disease and virology at UAB from 1971 to 1976. He currently resides in Alabama, where he has spent his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children’s of Alabama, continuing to advance lifesaving antiviral therapies.
An expert on how antiviral therapies fight infections in children and adults, Dr. Whitley’s research spans four decades, during which he has published 401 scholarly articles on pediatric infectious diseases. In 2019, Dr. Whitley was appointed by Dr. Anthony Fauci to chair the NIH-NIAID COVID-19 Data Safety and Monitoring Board. Today, he continues to serve as a member of the Steering Committee for the NIH Long COVID-RECOVER initiative.
Dr. Whitley’s honors are numerous and his professional organization involvement extensive, including NIAID AIDS Task Force membership; NIAID DSMB Clinical Trials Committee (Chairman); Associate Editor, Journal of Infectious Diseases (2005–Present); President, International Society for Antiviral Research (1988–1990); AAP Award for Excellence in Pediatric Research (1991); Elion Award, International Society for Antiviral Research (2004); Chair, BSC, CCID, CDC (2005–2010); UAB President’s Medal (2007); NIH National Adv Allergy and Infectious Disease Council (2008–2012); and President, Infectious Diseases Society of America (2009). In 2013, he was named as the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Clinical Research Scholar and Educator in Residence at the NIH Clinical Center.
He has received numerous other awards and lectureships, including the 2016 UAB SOM Dean’s Excellence Award in Research for Senior Faculty, the Department of Pediatrics Lifetime Achievement Award in Pediatric Healthcare in 2016, and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Irish Academy of Medicine in 2018. Dr. Whitley received the Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Infectious Diseases Society at their annual meeting in 2018. He received the 2020 National Foundation for Infectious Diseases John P. Utz Leadership Award for his work in the field of clinical virology in December 2020, and in 2022, he received the John Howland Award from the American Pediatric Society.