BETHESDA, MD, April 16, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Felix Fajardo de la Cruz, MD, MPH, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. de la Cruz celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. de la Cruz, having earned a laudable reputation in pediatrics for more than four decades, retired in 2002 as the chief of the Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland, after more than 20 years in his role. Joining the NICHD in 1964 after several years as a practicing pediatrician at the Rainier School in Buckley, Washington, and a two-year commitment as a fellow in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he quickly rose to become the chief of the children's diagnostic and study branch of NICHD. He then served as a special assistant for pediatrics before being named as the chief of the IDDs branch. He served as a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. in 1966. Dr. de la Cruz also notably served as an NICHD representative to the Interagency Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome during his career with the NIH, was the chairperson of the genetics task force on behalf of the NICHD and, among other roles, was an NICHD liaison member.
Apart from his full-time commitments, Dr. de la Cruz was engaged on the board of governors of the Center for Inherited Disease Research, National Human Genome Research Institute. Likewise, he was a member of the professional advisory board of the Counseling Center for Parents of Deaf Children. Dr. de la Cruz was also instrumental as an advisory board member of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Office of Child Development as part of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
As a respected voice in the community, Dr. de la Cruz taught for three months at the Instituto Magisterial Superior in Montevideo, Uruguay, at the recommendation of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation during 1970. Since that time, he has been invited to speak at dozens of international pediatric conferences throughout the world, from Canada, Mexico and Hawaii to Belgium, Spain, Scotland and more. Additionally, Dr. de la Cruz was responsible for organizing numerous international conferences on such topics as prenatal diagnosis and therapy, maternal phenylketonuria, genomic imprinting, gene therapy for intellectual and developmental disabilities, the effects of inborn errors of metabolism on reproductive outcome and an abundance of other topics in his area of expertise.
Dr. de la Cruz has contributed multiple scholarly articles to various peer reviewed journals as a seasoned researcher. He has also written and edited a number of scientific books. He was also an associate editor of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, an editorial review board member of Trisomy 21, an International Journal of Down Syndrome and was active on the editorial board for IDDs research reviews.
A native of the Philippines, Dr. de la Cruz received a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1956. That same year, he arrived in the U.S., where he continued his studies and earned a Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 1961. Additional educational pursuits to his credit include a pediatric residency at the Seattle Children's Hospital. Eminently qualified in his field, Dr. de la Cruz is board certified in pediatrics.
Dr. de la Cruz is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the American Association on Mental Deficiency. Likewise, he is a member of the committee on genetics, and of the section on pediatric pharmacology of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. de la Cruz is also a lifetime member of the Maternal and Child Health Association of the Philippines and a member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, where he was a Research Award recipient in 1993.
As a testament to his success and longevity in pediatrics, Dr. de la Cruz has been honored numerous times by the NIH and the NICHD. Some of his other accolades have included a Plaque of Merit, which was presented to him at the Phenylketonuria (PKU) Collaborative Study Medical Conference in 1979, a Special Award for Significant Contributions to Research on Down Syndrome, which was presented to him at the International Down Syndrome Conference of the National Down Syndrome Society in 1994 and a Meritorious Award from the department of pediatrics and the health sciences center of the University of Utah in 1999. A celebrated Marquis listee, Dr. de la Cruz has been cited in the 25th edition of Who's Who in the East.
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