Lester Martinez Lopez

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Lester Martinez Lopez
1955
Major General Lester Martinez Lopez
Place of birth	Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1978-2005
Rank	Major General
Commands held	Army Medical and Research Command
Awards	Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters Defense Meritorious Service Medal

Major General Lester Martinez Lopez (Ret.), MD, MPH, (born 1955) is the first Hispanic to head the Army Medical and Research Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland. His responsibilities included overseeing the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease, which develops antidotes and vaccines for diseases soldiers might face on the battlefield.

1 Early years
2 Military career
3 U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
- 3.1 USAMRMC Accomplishments
4 Later years
5 Military awards and recognitions
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Early years

Martinez Lopez was born in the city of Mayaguez, located on the western coast of Puerto Rico, but was raised and educated in the town of Maricao. In 1978, he graduated from the School of Medicine in the University of Puerto Rico. ^[1]

[edit] Military career

In 1978, Martinez Lopez joined the United States Army and was sent to Fort Bragg at North Carolina, where he received his specialty training in family practice and commissioned a Captain upon the completion of his training. He was part of a multinational force in Lebanon following the 1982 Israeli invasion.^[1] In 1983, he completed his MPH (Master of Public Health) degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a focus in environmental health sciences. In 1995, Martinez Lopez served as chief medical officer when U.S. forces were sent to Haiti, and three years later, in 1998, he oversaw military relief operations for 8,500 victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America.^[2]

[edit] U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

On March 22, 2002, Martinez Lopez assumed the command of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The command's research includes vaccines for dengue fever, anthrax and hepatitis; anti-virals for smallpox and countermeasures for environmental, biological and chemical hazards.^[1]

As commander of USAMRMC, Martinez Lopez managed more than 4,600 civilian, military and contract facilities at the Army's six medical research laboratories across the country, which include the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. ^[1]Also under his command were more than half a dozen support centers through contracting, medical logistics management, health care facility planning and information technology management, included The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity and the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency. ^[2]

[edit] USAMRMC Accomplishments

Among the major accomplishments of the USAMRMC while under his command are the following:^[3]

The establishment of the Biodefense campus [the National Interagency Biodefense Campus] projects. The project provided all the drugs and equipment for the medics all over the world.

The USAMRMC became the information management for the Army Medical Department. USAMRMC became one of the leaders in the country, if not the world, in telemedicine.

Martinez Lopez wrote the keynote for "Biomaterials for Military Medical Needs.^[4] On May 19, 2004, Martinez Lopez was the recipient of the 2004 "Woodrow Wilson Award for Distinguished Government Service" from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was the keynote speaker at the Delta Omega Honor Society induction ceremony.^[2] Martinez Lopez has been featured on the cover of "U.S. Medicine" magazine^[3] and on the cover of the December 26, 2002 issue of "Military Medical Technology" magaine.^[5]

[edit] Later years

Martinez Lopez retired from the Army in 2005 and was named the Senior Vice President & Administrator of Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital Harris County Hospital District in Houston, Texas.^[6] Martinez Lopez belongs to various professional organizations, among them the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Preventive Medicine. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice.