An ophthalmologist whose seemingly simple discovery has saved millions of children from death received a top honor from the University of Michigan.

U-M president Mary Sue Coleman presented the Thomas Francis Jr. Medal in Global Public Health Thursday to Dr. Alfred Sommer at the Blau Auditorium at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Sommer, a Johns Hopkins professor and dean emeritus, began to study vitamin A in relation to childhood night blindness in the 1970s. But he discovered along the way that proper vitamin A doses could not only save eyesight, but the lives of children. His current research has shown vitamin A doses can nearly halve maternal mortality rates in developing countries.

His long-term research has translated into action. Lots of it.

Since the 1980s, vitamin A doses have saved children in 70 countries, the University Record reported. The doses work because vitamin A protects people from infectious diseases, like measles and diarrhea.

World health watchers now consider vitamin A supplementation the most cost-effective of all preventive treatments.

The award honors Francis, a doctor who designed and directed the field trial of the Salk polio vaccine; he was the founding chairman of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and directed the U-M Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center. Thursday’s presentation marked the second delivery of the Thomas Francis Jr. Medal; it was followed by a talk and panel discussion.

Read the U-M's Record Update article on the award.

Juliana Keeping is a health and environment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter