David D. Ho, M.D. was the recipient of the inaugural Rudin Prize, awarded on October 30, 2003. Dr. Ho was honored for his pioneering research in designing the widely used AIDS cocktail of therapeutic drugs.

Dr. Ho is the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, a world-renowned biomedical research institute. He is also the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Ho received his degrees from California Institute of Technology (1974) and Harvard Medical School (1978). He subsequently completed his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the UCLA School of Medicine (1978-1982) and Massachusetts General Hospital (1982-1985).Dr. Ho has been actively engaged in AIDS research for 20 years, and has published more than 250 papers on the subject. He is perhaps most recognized for elucidating the dynamic nature of HIV replication in infected persons. By coming to this basic understanding, Dr. Ho and his coworkers were able to champion the development of combination antiretroviral therapy, which has dramatically reduced AIDS-related mortality. Dr. Ho continues to pursue therapeutic options that could one day eradicate HIV. In addition, his research team is now devoting considerable efforts to developing a vaccine that would halt the spread of AIDS.

Dr. Ho was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1996, received a Presidential Medal in 2001, and has received numerous other honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments.