The JV Irons keynote lecture is named in honor of JV Irons, Sc.D. whose career with the Texas Department of State Health Services spanned 41 years. Dr Irons, who received his degree from the University of Indiana, served as Director of the Bureau of Laboratories for the last 25 years of his distinguished career. His leadership influenced and molded the laboratories’ services more than that of any other individual.
Dr Irons authored or co-authored more than ninety scientific or professional publications and contributed to five reference texts on microbiology and public health. He was an active member of many professional public health and scientific organizations. Among these was the Pan American Sanitary Bureau in Lima, Peru where he served as a temporary advisor. Dr. Irons received a citation from the Peruvian Department of Health for his contributions to their smallpox eradication program. He had improved their smallpox diagnosis by enhancing fertile egg membrane culture techniques.
Indiana State University presented him with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1963, and he was the recipient of the George Caldwell Award in Pathology from the Texas society of Pathologists in 1968. In 1973, the keynote address of the Southwest Conference of Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man was named in his honor.