Ciro de Quadros, M.D., M.P.H., is the Executive Vice-President of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute. A Brazilian national, he has dedicated his career to freeing the world of infectious diseases, especially those that disproportionately affect the health and social development of the world's poorer countries. A pioneer in developing effective strategies for smallpox surveillance and containment, de Quadros served as the World Health Organization's chief epidemiologist for smallpox eradication on Ethiopia in the 1970's. Following the global eradication of smallpox, he became the regional immunization advisor and then the director of the Division of Vaccines and Immunization for the Pan American Health Organization, for whom he successfully directed efforts to eradicate poliomyelitis and measles from the Western Hemisphere, and established innovative planning and managerial processes that helped countries improve their immunization programs. These processes became the model for the recently established Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).