Posted by Shaquanna Philip, Program Assistant

PRIM&R is proud to announce that Dr. Dyaeldin Elsayed of Al Zaiem Al Azhari University (AAU) in Khartoum, Sudan has been chosen as the Pillars of PRIM&R Fellow for 2008-2009. His expressed desire to transition from a person interested in bioethics to a specialist in the field was one of the qualities that made Dr. Elsayed a frontrunner for this fellowship.

Currently, Dr. Elsayed is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Community Medicine at AAU, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate students. During his tenure there, Dr. Elsayed helped establish an Ethics Review Committee, and he currently serves on the National Ethics Review Committee, which was formed in 2001.

Dr. Elsayed earned his diploma of Medicine and Surgery at the Medical Institute in Kiev, in the former USSR, and an MD in Community Medicine at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. He began his career working for the federal Ministry of Health, where his involvement in research ethics initially took root.

Dr. Elsayed plans to use the fellowship to develop a curriculum for bioethics, as well as an ethics training program, at AAU, and PRIM&R wishes him the best of luck in his endeavors. Additional updates about Dr. Elsayed’s efforts will follow in this blog.

Since its own rooting in 1974, PRIM&R has been infused with the wisdom, devotion, and vision of a number of highly respected and uncommonly committed Board of Directors, members, and volunteers. When two such revered board members, Louis Lasagna and Herman Wigodsky, passed away, their colleagues on the board established the Pillars of PRIM&R Memorial Fund to honor them and other longstanding PRIM&R contributors by making a small annual grant to one person who is working to advance ethical research.