Dr. Lee-Ann Jaykus was presented the prestigious NSF Leadership Award for Innovation by Handwashing For Life Institute’s Executive Director, Jim Mann, at a ceremony conducted at the 2017 Food Safety Summit in Chicago. Lee-Ann is a professor at North Carolina State University and Director of the NoroCORE program.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were also presented to Jack Guzewich, left, and David Theno, right. (Dr. Theno has recently passed as a result of a tragic accident: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2017/06/large-wave-hits-kills-food-safety-….)
Dr. Jaykus outlined the significance of her award winning work on norovirus in this interview following the award presentation. She shares her vision of the implication’s for the future in taming the #1 cause of outbreaks in foodservice and in long-term healthcare where it is a killer.
Norovirus gives rise to 20,000 infections annually. In her closing note on the key message from her research was a simple piece of advice, “Wash your hands!”