TAG Honors Judith Light with Research in Action Award Tonight

Treatment Action Group (TAG), one of the world's leading AIDS research advocacy organizations, will host its 16th annual Research in Action Awards (RIAA), honoring individuals who have made a significant contribution to AIDS research and activism. 2012 also marks TAG's 20th anniversary.

The 2012 Research in Action Awards will take place at 6:00 p.m., tonight, December 9, 2012, at 404NYC (404 10th Avenue). Jenna Wolfe of NBC's Weekend TODAY will once again serve as the evening's emcee. The evening's co-chairs include TAG cofounder, and founder of AIDSmeds.com, Peter Staley, and executive producer of the recent documentary How to Survive a Plague, Joy Tomchin.

TAG is proud to present its 2012 Research in Action Awards to Actress and Humanitarian Judith Light, with Scott Campbell, Executive Director of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, presenting Ms. Light with her award; Dr. Paul Farmer, a cofounder of Partners In Health and chairman of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, with Chelsea Clinton presenting Dr. Farmer with his award; Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the virologist who discovered the HIV virus, and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, with Executive Director of TAG Mark Harrington presenting Dr. Barré-Sinoussi's award; and Jon Cohen, HIV/AIDS journalist for Science magazine and author of Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine. Pulitzer Prize–winner Mark Schoofs will present Mr. Cohen his much-deserved award.

"This year TAG honors four heroes of the epidemic who have made scientific breakthroughs, provided revolutionary health care for the world's poorest and most marginalized people, lit up Hollywood and Broadway with their artistic talent, and shone the bright light of journalism on the past quarter-century of struggle against HIV.

"We would be nowhere in this struggle had not Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, then a bright young virologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, quickly discovered HIV in 1982, just a year after the CDC announced the advent of AIDS. For this work, Dr. Barré-Sinoussi was justly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2008. She now leads the global research effort to find a cure for AIDS as President of the International AIDS Society (IAS).

"Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Partners In Health (PIH) has pioneered high-quality treatment of HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) for some of the world's most poor and marginalized people in Haiti, Lesotho, Russia, Rwanda, and elsewhere, raising the bar for governments and public health providers worldwide while infusing activism and human rights into everything they do.

"Accomplished actress Judith Light has electrified Broadway and Hollywood in many productions, while working tirelessly for the rights, health, and lives of people with HIV, lesbians, gay men, and transgendered people. Journalist Jon Cohen has doggedly covered the AIDS pandemic in Science magazine for a quarter century, traveling the world to live with homeless people, drug users, sex workers, gay men, drag queens, and people living with, struggling against, and surviving HIV, poverty, drug use, and social exclusion. His science coverage is as deep and broad as his compassion, and this combination has made him the world's most crucial AIDS reporter for 25 years. TAG is proud to salute these outstanding heroes in our common fight to end AIDS.

"TAG is also thrilled that NBC news reporter Chelsea Clinton will be presenting the Research in Action Award to Paul Farmer. Ms. Clinton is a dedicated global health activist, and her presence will remind the AIDS community of the vital contributions her family has made, and continues to make, to ending the AIDS crisis and providing high-quality health care to everyone," said Mark Harrington, TAG's executive director.

Acclaimed artist Robert Gober has generously donated a limited-edition of 20 woodblock prints, created especially for TAG, which are available to qualifying sponsors of the 2012 RIAA Awards.

Founded in 1992, Treatment Action Group fights to ensure that all people living with HIV receive the treatment, care, and information they need to save their lives.

Today, in the 32nd year of this global pandemic, TAG remains the only organization in the world dedicated to AIDS research advocacy for better treatments, a vaccine, and cure for AIDS. TAG is the leading community-activist science-based AIDS policy, research, and treatment advocacy think tank. TAG works to speed up research on HIV basic science, treatment, prevention, and vaccines.

TAG catalyzes efforts to strengthen and expand research on HIV and related diseases so that people with HIV can live long and healthy lives. TAG's ultimate goal is to accelerate research for a vaccine and a cure for AIDS, and to end the HCV, TB, and HIV pandemics.

Tickets are available from $200 by calling 212-253-7922, or online at www.treatmentactiongroup.org/riaa.