William A. Petri MD, PhD

Biography William A. Petri, Jr., M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Petri is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease and International Health and Vice Chair of Medicine at the University of Virginia. He received his MD and PhD (in virology) degrees from UVA. His medical residency was at Case Western. He returned to UVA for his Infectious Disease fellowship.
Governor McAuliffe in 2014 awarded Petri the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award and again in 2017 the Outstanding Scientist Award. The University of Virginia recognized him this year with the Thomas Jefferson Award.
He has served as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Editor of infection and Immunity and is currently associate editor for PLoS Pathogens, Clinical Infections Diseases and Trends in Molecular Medicine. He has received the Oswald Avery Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Kean Medal of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and later this year will receive the Finland Award of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. He has served continuously since 1993 on advisory committees for the NIH.
Each year, Dr. Petri spends three month teaching and caring for patients on the general medicine and infectious diseases inpatient services. The remainder is focused on research on infectious diseases, especially infectious diarrhea in children living in poverty in Bangladesh, and COVID-19 and C. difficile infections at the UVA hospital. Petri’s hobbies include gardening, playing the trombone and running marathons. He and his wife Mary Ann (McDonald, MD UVA class of 1982) have five children and became grandparents during the pandemic!