In 2016, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, recruited Dr. Marlink to lead the new Rutgers Global Health Institute, a university wide effort, based at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS). In addition to holding a Henry Rutgers professorship, Dr. Marlink is faculty at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Dr. Marlink served on the faculty of Harvard University, where he was the Beal Professor of the Practice of Public Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and executive director of the Harvard AIDS Initiative (HAI). In 1996, Dr. Marlink helped create the Botswana-HAI Partnership (BHP), where he continues as a senior research director. He has also served as the scientific director, vice president for program implementation, and senior adviser for medical and scientific affairs at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He was principal investigator for the foundation’s Project HEART, established in 2004. Seven years later, the project had placed more than one million people living with HIV into care clinics; in addition, more than 565,000 were receiving lifesaving antiretroviral treatment in five African countries. In the mid-1980s, Dr. Essex’s group began planning a trip to Senegal to study HIV-2, a previously unrecognized, completely different type of HIV, in which people were infected but seemed relatively asymptomatic. At the time, Dr. Marlink had limited expertise in research, but he told the group, “As a physician, I can tell you if a person is sick with HIV.” A week later, he was on a plane to Senegal to help determine if people infected with this new type of AIDS virus were ill or going to become ill. He examined patients and approached public health research problems in Africa, contributing his training in virology and oncology to the many moving parts involved in evaluating HIV-2, from infection, to symptoms, to psychology, to the effects of illness and treatment. Taking Inventory “R ichard Marlink’s experienced leadership will be key to the strategic growth of RBHS, broadening the universi- Deep Roots in HIV/AIDS Care r. Marlink’s career began in oncology/hematology. In the early days before AIDS was understood, many oncologists took care of patients with the newly identified syndrome that would eventually be identified as being caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1. He completed his internship, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in lower Manhattan from 1980 to 1981, caring for very sick, immunocompromised patients with unusual infections, such as cryptosporidium or miliary disseminated tuberculosis. Although these infections were not unknown, their devastating effect on people with lowered immunity was part of the puzzle, as was their prevalence among men in the gay community and among health care workers in the Greenwich Village area. In 1981, their symptoms were explained and the disease was named acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Dr. Marlink trained as a fellow in oncology at New England Deaconess Hospital of Harvard Medical School, the only hospital in Boston then actively accepting AIDS patients. He coorganized Boston’s first hospital-based AIDS clinic and worked with the research team of Max Essex, DVM, PhD, chair of both the BHP and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health AIDS Initiative. Dr. Essex originally proposed that AIDS was likely caused by a retrovirus that destroys the immune system by infecting T cells. D ty’s ability to support community public health efforts to improve health and wellness,” says Brian Strom, MD, chancellor, RBHS. “His goal is to drive Rutgers’ continued evolution as one of the leading global health centers in the country, linking together and building upon the significant resources we are committing to improving public health at Rutgers.” Global health uses the full range of health promotion strategies, including those directed at industrial, social, economic, and political determinants of public health. Given this broad scope, Dr. Marlink is excited about working with people throughout Rutgers who represent the university’s diversity and breadth of expertise. “In a way, we are like a team of detectives,” he says, “connecting the dots to solve mysteries—they just happen to be public health mysteries.” The institute will serve as a communications hub, connecting and supporting the university’s programs related to global health. “If people are involved in an effort, we want them to know who else is working on—or considering—a similar effort, whether it’s here in New Jersey, in Ghana, or in India,” says Dr. Marlink. In his first year at Rutgers, Dr. Marlink will complete an inventory of the university’s resources, learning how each sector might best support the work of the Rutgers Global Health Institute. His findings will be the foundation for a strategic plan for the institute. “Through this process, we’ll discover our gems, the strengths that will help us make an impact in global health,” he says. “Then we’ll be able to add educational resources, develop services to improve research, and recruit faculty.” Solutions to global health problems depend on bringing to bear overlapping sciences including statistics, demography, and epidemiology. “The diversity of schools at Rutgers promises 14 Robert Wood Johnson I MEDICINE