William A. Petri Jr., M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia, where he studies immunology and molecular pathogenesis of enteric infections and their consequences. The scope of his research includes molecular parasitology of Entamoeba, innate immune host defense against Clostridium difficile, and in Bangladesh acquired immunity to Cryptosporidium.
Petri has received from Gov. Terry McAuliffe both the Commonwealth of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award (2014) and the Outstanding Scientist Award (2017). He has been recognized at UVa with the Kadner Award for Graduate Teaching, the All-University Teaching, and Inventor of the Year Awards.
He has served as President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Editor of Infection and Immunity, and is currently Associate Editor for PLoS Pathogens, Clinical Infections Diseases and Trends in Molecular Medicine. He has received the Oswald Avery Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator and Scholar Awards in Molecular Parasitology, and the Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award in Biomedical Research. He has served continuously since 1993 on advisory committees for the NIH.
