{"id":148154,"date":"2025-07-10T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=148154"},"modified":"2025-07-11T11:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T15:53:14","slug":"ucf-epidemiologist-receives-fields-highest-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-epidemiologist-receives-fields-highest-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"麻豆原创 Epidemiologist Receives Field\u2019s Highest Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"
麻豆原创 infection preventionist Cindy Prins has been named a fellow of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) \u2013 the highest honor for a scientist focused on better ways to prevent infectious diseases.<\/p>\n
APIC is the leading professional association for infection preventionists, with more than 15,000 members. Prins is one of just 39 fellows selected worldwide this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cFellow is a signifier of your commitment, not just to APIC, but to infection prevention as a profession,\u201d says Marie Wilson, a fellow of APIC and infection preventionist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who served on the APIC Communications Committee with Prins. \u201cInfection prevention is a young profession and every fellow that carries that distinction is a part of getting us to where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prins began her career as a virologist, before a passion for public health inspired her to transition to epidemiology, studying healthcare-associated infections and how to prevent them from spreading.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really interested in the transmission and spread of these tiny microbes that can wreak so much havoc on a person and how we can prevent that,\u201d Prins says.<\/p>\n
Her first role was in hospital infection control at University of Florida Shands Hospital in 2006 before shifting toward education and research as a UF Department of Epidemiology faculty member in 2010. But when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, she was found herself practicing infection prevention again.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the pandemic, I was the infection preventionist for the whole campus, which brought me back into that applied infection prevention role that I was doing before, but in a very different setting,\u201d Prins says. \u201cI think that sparked my interest again in being able to work with people to communicate how to prevent these infections.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the pandemic began to subside, Prins began exploring ways to continue to support infection prevention beyond her local community. She joined the APIC Communications Committee, which provides infection prevention information and materials to medical professionals, hospitals and the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Prins has a depth of knowledge and expertise that I truly valued working with her on the Communications Committee,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cShe was very calm, reliable and kind in a way that I really appreciated as a colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n