Awardees in 2011


Congratulations to the first four recipients of our new TAE Excellence Training Awards in 2011.

Hilmir Asgeirsson, Huddinge, Sweden
The recipient studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Iceland from September 1999 to June 2005. After his intern year he worked three months as a volunteer in Ethiopia. From January 2007 to January 2010 he did his residency in internal medicine at Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. During this time he was involved in epidemiological research on S. aureus bacteraemia resulting in published articles and poster presentations at international conferences. He has also published papers in other sub-specialities of internal medicine and has been involved in teaching clinical skills to medical students.
Since February 2010 he has continued his training in infectious
diseases at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Karolinska
University Hospital in Sweden. Most recently, he participated
in the Swedish-Ethiopian Course in Tropical Infectious Diseases
2010-2011 and has become a member of a competence
group on tropical infections at the Karolinska University Hospital.
He is expected to finish his training in December 2012.

Axel Hamprecht, Cologne, Germany
During his medical studies he developed a keen interest in infectious diseases and tropical medicine and did internships in Botswana and at the WHO in Geneva. He pursued medical training in France, Switzerland and the UK and later completed his MD thesis at the Institute for Medical Microbiology of the Charité, Berlin. After his clinical term, Axel became a trainee in microbiology at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene of the University Hospital Cologne.

Having a strong interest in mycology, he received further training in this field at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He established an intense cooperation with colleagues in the department of infectious diseases at Cologne and mycologists in different European countries, resulting in different mycological projects. He also works in the Clinic of Travel Medicine and in a joint project with a hospital in Ivory Coast. He is very involved in the teaching of medical students and gives lectures and courses in microbiology and mycology. Currently, he is in the final year of his training in microbiology.

Valentina Mazzocato, Rome, Italy
She started her studies at the ‘La Sapienza’ University and from the beginning has carried out extracurricular activities focused on social medicine: She collaborated with SISM (Italian Secretariat Medicine Students) and joined the Caritas (Catholic Charity) voluntary programme for medicine students working at Caritas Immigrant Ambulatory. For her thesis work, she carried out research on the Immigrant Ambulatory at the ‘Umberto I Hospital’. In 2004 Valentina Mazzocato was enrolled in the SISM Research Exchange Programme in Hospital Sao Rafael, Brazil as a trainee student to improve her medicine competence in a tropical environment. In 2010 she participated in an Observership in Ankara at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Hacettepe University and Numune State Education and Research Hospital.

Currently she is employed as a resident doctor at ‘Gemelli Hospital’ in Rome, in the infectious diseases and ambulatory units, where she also participates in projects and networking activities between her department disciplines and related specialties as well as in student groups and social campaigns for STD prevention. Her interests are on studies about ARV adherence, vaccinations, tuberculosis and clinical ultrasound.

Djin-Ye Oh, Berlin, Germany
She is currently training in pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, USA. This training is in addition to her Microbiology training at Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany. Her multifaceted teaching approach integrates basic science, laboratory medicine and clinical medicine. Her research experience includes studies on the molecular epidemiology of RNA viruses (Robert Koch-Institute, Germany), analyses on the impact of innate immune system genetic variation on RNA viral diseases (Charité University Medical Center) and the use of adjuvant for potential neonatal vaccines (Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School). She has initiated and coordinated several collaborations between basic science labs and clinical research groups.
Her clinical training and research efforts have strengthened her conviction that academic research and clinical medicine should exist as mutually supportive entities in the common service of promoting the human welfare. Therefore, she envisions an academic career that consistently integrates her scientific knowledge and laboratory skills with clinical experience.