Back to top

March 18, 2016

Dear MTN Friends and Family,

By now many of you have heard that our great friend and colleague, Ward Cates, passed away last night at home surrounded by his family.

Ward truly was a giant in the field of Womens Reproductive Health and HIV prevention research and a guide and mentor to many of us in the MTN. Ward was perhaps the most optimistic person we have ever met and almost every challenge the MTN network faced had the potential to be a ‘win win’ situation. He was often the first, and sometimes the last, person to ask questions at the MTN Annual and Regional Meeting plenary sessions. We will miss his insights, challenges, and encouragement.

It is wonderful that Ward lived long enough to be able to hear the results of the ASPIRE and RING studies and to know that the daring scientific journey he and others began so many years ago had come to fruition with the demonstration that the dapivirine ring was both safe and effective for HIV prevention in women. This meant a huge amount to Ward and in his last few weeks he made it very clear that he was relying on us to make sure that this important work to prevent HIV infection continues.

We will of course organize a special memorial for Ward during the MTN Regional Meeting. Today we want to share our condolences to his immediate family, his colleagues at FHI360 and to every member of our MTN family as we try to imagine a world without Ward. In Ward’s memory, contributions would be much appreciated to The Guttmacher Institute, 125 Maiden Lane, 7th floor, New York, NY 10038, Guttmacher.org.

With fond regards at this sad time.

Ian M. McGowan, MD, PhD, FRCP and Sharon L. Hillier, PhD