Washingtonian
of the Year Washingtonian
of the Year Washingtonian
of the Year

University of Washington Medicine professor Dr. Helen Chu, ’12, whose team of researchers and scientists in the Seattle Flu Study identified the first case of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., has been named “Washingtonian of the Year” by the Washington State Leadership Board.

Chu, who conducts research in the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in the UW School of Medicine, was honored for her work, which led to therapies for COVID-19, treatments and the development of vaccines.

Chu, associate professor in the UW Medicine Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is one of the principal investigators of the Seattle Flu Study, a collaborative research project that was investigating how influenza and other respiratory viruses spread throughout the city. Since many in the field saw respiratory viruses as a likely source of a pandemic, her work became even more critical.