{"id":"harvey-j-alter","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/harvey-j-alter","language":"en","name":"Harvey J. Alter","name_en":"Harvey J. Alter","name_ne":null,"description":"American medical researcher","headline":"American medical researcher","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Harvey James Alter (born September 12, 1935) is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently, Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called \"non-A, non-B hepatitis\" caused the infections, and that the causative agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.","summary_more":["Alter has received recognition for the research leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service, and the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research."],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"12 September 1935","date":"1935-09-12"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"New York City","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"United States","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"virologist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15634281"},{"text":"university teacher","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1622272"},{"text":"physician","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q39631"},{"text":"internist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15924224"},{"text":"hematologist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3144914"},{"text":"transfusiologist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60176870"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"University of Rochester","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q149990"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P69"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Canada Gairdner International Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1031994","date":"2013"},{"text":"Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q136696","date":"2000"},{"text":"Prix International de l’INSERM","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30120368","date":"2004"},{"text":"Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80061","date":"2020"},{"text":"Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1732108","date":"1992"},{"text":"Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7257411","date":"1977"},{"text":"James Blundell Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q99972965","date":"1999"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_J._Alter","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Harvey J. Alter born?","a":"Harvey J. Alter was born on 12 September 1935 in New York City."},{"q":"Where did Harvey J. Alter study?","a":"Harvey J. Alter was educated at University of Rochester."}],"related":[{"name":"Jan Koum","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/jan-koum"},{"name":"Joe Gebbia","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/joe-gebbia"},{"name":"Luke Nosek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/luke-nosek"},{"name":"Miriam Adelson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/miriam-adelson"},{"name":"Adam Riess","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/adam-riess"},{"name":"Alan J. Heeger","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alan-j-heeger"},{"name":"Alfred G. Gilman","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-g-gilman"},{"name":"Alfred Hershey","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-hershey"},{"name":"Allan MacLeod Cormack","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/allan-macleod-cormack"},{"name":"Andrea M. Ghez","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrea-m-ghez"},{"name":"Andrew Fire","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-fire"},{"name":"Andrew Schally","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-schally"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/harvey-j-alter-5d787dc4b4.jpg","width":250,"height":244,"license":"Public domain","credit":"Unknown author Unknown author","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvey_J._Alter.jpeg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Harvey J. Alter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_J._Alter","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q5677307","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5677307","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Harvey J. Alter.jpeg by Unknown author Unknown author (Public domain)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvey_J._Alter.jpeg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Harvey J. Alter, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Harvey J. Alter.jpeg — Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain.","cite":"\"Harvey J. Alter\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/harvey-j-alter. Retrieved 5 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T12:00:53Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/harvey-j-alter","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/harvey-j-alter","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/harvey-j-alter?lang=ne"}}