Gates Foundation polio lead, Antwerp researcher win 2025 Park MahnHoon Award

SK bioscience and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) have named four recipients of the 2025 Park MahnHoon Award, an annual prize recognizing global contributions to vaccine development and access.

This year’s award goes to Pierre Van Damme of the University of Antwerp and Ananda Bandyopadhyay of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Luiza Helena Trajano, founder of Grupo Mulheres do Brasil, and Svetha Janumpalli, CEO of U.S.-based nonprofit New Incentives.

Van Damme led clinical trials of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), the first vaccine to receive WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure. He also launched Vaccinopolis, a dedicated vaccine testing and development center for early-stage trials and pandemic response.

Bandyopadhyay oversaw global rollout efforts of nOPV2 as deputy director for polio at the Gates Foundation. More than 1.5 billion doses have been administered across 40 countries as part of the polio eradication strategy, according to Tuesday’s press release. 

Trajano was recognized for organizing a national vaccine access campaign during Covid-19 in Brazil, targeting underserved regions. Janumpalli’s nonprofit offers conditional cash transfers to boost childhood immunization rates in remote areas of Nigeria.

The Park MahnHoon Award was created in 2021 to honor the late SK bioscience executive who helped establish Korea’s vaccine R&D infrastructure. A 12-member expert panel selects recipients based on impact in vaccine research, development, and distribution. 

The award gained international attention after its first winners—mRNA researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman—won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023.