Diary Prequel Package — page 212

July 10, 2009 - Important meeting at the Pooks Hill Marriott to discuss the transformation of our AIDS clinical trials network into a network that would be "pluripotential" in that we would study a host of other diseases within the infrastructure, i.e. TB, malaria, NTDs, flu, etc. There is obviously some resistance to this, but it is the way to go. Getting prepared for trip on July 16 - 22 to Cape Town for the IAS meeting where I have several speaking roles (see below). July 14, 2009 - Senator Carl Levin called me to ask my advice about the qualifications and temperament of Tara O'Toole who has been nominated by Pres. Obama as an Assistant Secretary in the Dept. of Homeland Security. He is Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee responsible for approving her nomination. He has heard concerns that she is somewhat of a zealot for Biodefense. I explained that I knew her and that although she is a bit out there in thinking that there is Al Qaeda is every corner, she still is quite competent and I would recommend that he approve her. July 15, 2009 - Went with Patty Conrad to the book signing of D.A. Henderson's book on the history of smallpox eradication sponsored by Tommy Thompson of Aikin Gump (his law firm). Tommy was very moved that I was there and introduced me when I came in as "the person who discovered the AIDS virus" (ha!). When I corrected him he said, "Well, Tony is the world's greatest scientist". Nice party. Some of Tommy's old crew was there: Stewart Simonson, Kevin Keane, Bill Pierce, Ladd Wiley, etc. Patty and I went out to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's on 19th Street afterwards. July 16 - 21, 2009 Trip to Cape Town, South Africa to the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on Pathogenesis, treatment and Prevention held at the Cape Town Convention Center from Sunday, Sept. 19 to Wed, Sept 22. I left USA on Thursday, July 16 and arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening. Came DC with fuel stop at Dakar, then to Johannesburg and on to cape Town. Exhausting 20 hour trip. Stayed at Cullinan Hotel (Southern Sun) On Saturday AM, July 18 gave the Keynote Address at the HIV/TB research Meeting at the Desmond Tutu HIV Center of the University of cape Town. Lecture extremely well received. I spoke of the same critical needs for TB (together with HIV) research that I spoke about a few weeks before at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle. During the afternoon of July 18 drove down to Cape Point with Gray Handley. Clearly Cape Town and the Western Cape is one of the most beautiful cities/areas in the world. It look so much like the California coast from San Francisco down to Monterrey/Carmel. Weather was stunningly beautiful with crisp clear skies and temperatures about 65-70. This is most unusual at this time of years since this is SA's winter. In the evening of July 18, met with Julio Montaner (Pres. IAS) and co-chair of meeting and Craig Mc Clure (Exec. Director of IAS) and Robin Gorna upcoming President of IAS to discuss the possibility of holding the 2012 IAS meeting in Washington, D.C. They