News Release
September 2002
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
today named Moravian College alumna Janine Jagger ’72, one of
24 MacArthur Fellows for 2002. Jagger is an epidemiologist and a leader
in the design and dissemination of means and strategies to protect health
care workers from the transmission of bloodborne diseases. She will
receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the
next five years.
The MacArthur Foundation award is intended to nurture
those individuals who are a source of new knowledge and ideas, have
the courage to challenge inherited orthodoxies and to take intellectual,
scientific, and cultural risks. For twenty-five years, the MacArthur
Fellows Program has been a vital part of the Foundation’s efforts
to recognize and support individuals who lift the human spirit, illuminate
potential, and shape our collective future.
Each year in the United States, more than half a million
health care workers are stuck by contaminated needles and other sharp
medical devices, resulting in major psychological and physical trauma.
In landmark research, Jagger proved that injury risk was related to
specific device design features, thereby reorienting the debate about
protecting health care workers from changing their behavior to improving
the design of the devices they use. In 1985, she and her associates
designed some of the first needlestick protective devices recorded by
the U.S. Patent Office. In the early 1990s, she developed the Exposure
Prevention Information Network (EPINet), which is now used in some 1,500
hospitals. Her research and analyses guide design engineers in their
efforts to improve the safety of medical devices. Her surveillance system
is employed in countries around the world. As director of the International
Health Care Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia School
of Medicine, Jagger is now focusing her attention on applying the lessons
learned domestically to increase protection for health care workers
in developing countries.
Janine Jagger received a B.A. (1972) from Moravian College,
an M.P.H. (1974) from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. (1987)
from the University of Virginia. She has been affiliated with the University
of Virginia School of Medicine since 1978 and currently serves as Research
Professor of Internal Medicine and directs the International Health
Care Worker Safety Center. Her honors include the Distinguished Inventor
Award (1988) from Intellectual Property Owners, the President’s
Award (1989) from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Henderson
Inventor of the Year Award (1996) from the Univ. of Virginia Patent
Foundation, and an Excellence in Research Award (1998) from the Assoc.
of Operating Room Nurses.
Since the inception of the program in 1981, six hundred
and thirty five MacArthur Fellows have been named. No one may apply
for the Fellowship, nor is there an interview process. To be considered,
a person must be nominated by one of several hundred nominators appointed
each year. Nominators, who serve anonymously, are chosen across many
fields and challenged to identify people who demonstrate exceptional
creativity and promise. A 12-member selection committee, whose members
also serve anonymously, meets regularly throughout the year to review
nominee files, to narrow the list, and to make final recommendations
to the Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective
liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its
founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college.
Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu.
