UC Medical Center to Honor Developer of Polio Vaccine with Ohio Historical Marker

The UC Medical Center will honor the accomplishments of Albert B. Sabin, MD, with the dedication of an Ohio Historical Marker on Thursday, June 19 at 4 p.m. at the entrance to the Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, UC Medical Center.  Dr. Sabin was a faculty member of the UC College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation (CHRF) when he developed the live-virus polio vaccine in 1960.

The marker, sponsored by the Ohio Historical Society to celebrate the Ohio Bicentennial, will be placed in front of the Vontz Center at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Eden Avenue.  The marker complements the permanent display of Dr. Sabin's work housed in the lobby of the Vontz Center. 

To date, there are 43 Ohio Historical Markers in Hamilton County alone.  The Ohio Bicentennial Commission was formed in 1995 to promote and plan for Ohio's 200th birthday in 2003.  Since its inception, the Ohio Bicentennial Commission has spearheaded two programs that have generated more than 500 new historical markers in the state of Ohio.

Guests of honor at the event include Dr. Sabin's widow, Heloisa Sabin, from Washington D.C.; Jack Blosser of the Ohio Historical Society; Thomas F. Boat, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the UC College of Medicine, director of CHRF and interim provost for Health Affairs at the UC Medical Center; and William J. Martin II, MD, dean of the UC College of Medicine and acting Senior Vice President of the UC Medical Center.