​Dr. Vincenzo Marcolongo Lecture

The Marcolongo Lecture honors Vincenzo Marcolongo (1922–1988), founder of IAMAT -International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers. A graduate of the medical school at the University of Rome, Dr. Marcolongo did his postgraduate training at McGill University in Montreal and returned to Italy to obtain his doctorate in tropical medicine.

Dr. Marcolongo made the health needs of travelers his life’s work. Of particular interest to him was malaria and preventing the unnecessary morbidity and mortality it causes among travelers.

In an era of increasing international travel, he realized that there was a need for collaboration among medical practitioners around the world to help travelers. In 1960 he founded IAMAT, a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to doctors and nurses from countries where travel medicine is an emerging practice.

Through IAMAT, Dr. Marcolongo worked tirelessly to inform travelers of health risks and raise awareness of travelers’ health among travel industry professionals and medical practitioners worldwide. His foresight, compassion and generosity continue to serve as inspiration for IAMAT’s work.

In his own words: “The need for peace and understanding between the peoples of the world has never been as great as now. Peace can come only with understanding, and travel is an important means of acquiring it. It is, however, only through the full consciousness of ‘the essence of the human’ that we shall be able to open the difficult paths of international relationships. As a traveler you have an excellent opportunity to serve your country and the world in creating ties of friendship. To you, therefore, we bring this message, a message sparked with beauty all its own: ‘The search for the human’."

The Marcolongo Lecture was instituted in 1990; the list of speakers follows.