suspect that Dr. Katz is referring to Dr. Alter here (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_J._Alter).
Here are exerts from Dr. Alter's Wikipedia page:
Career
Alter has a medical license issued by the District of Columbia. Additionally he holds certification by the American Board of Pathology-Subspecialty Blood Banking and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians/American Society Internal Medicine. Clinical appointments include: director, hematology research at Georgetown University Hospital from 7/66-6/69; senior investigator in the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the NIH from 7/69-present; chief of infectious diseases section at the department of transfusion medicine in the Clinical Center NIH from 12/72-present; associate director for research at the department of transfusion medicine at the Clinical Center at NIH from 1/87-present.
…
Alter came to the NIH Clinical Center as a senior investigator in 1969. He remains at the NIH as a chief of the infectious diseases section and associate director of research in the department of transfusion medicine.
Medical research
As a young research fellow in 1964, Alter co-discovered the Australian antigen with Baruch Blumberg. This work was a major factor in isolating the hepatitis B virus. Later, Alter lead a Clinical Center project to store blood samples used to uncover the causes and reduce the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis. Based on his work, the United States started blood and donor screening programs that lowered the cause of hepatitis due to this risk from 30 percent in 1970 to nearly 0.
Discovery of hepatitis C
In the mid 1970’s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A and hepatitis B viruses. Alter, in collaboration with Bob Purcell and Paige L. Meredith, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called “non-A, non-B hepatitis” caused the infections. This work eventually lead to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. In 1988 the new hepatitis virus was confirmed by Alter's group by verifying its presence in their stored panel of NANBH specimens. In April 1989, the discovery of the non-A, non-B virus, re-named hepatitis C virus, was published in two articles in Science.
Honors and award
Alter has received recognition for his research including the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. Alter and his co-awardee Michael Houghton were recognized for the development of blood screening methods that essentially eliminated the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis in the U.S. Other honors for his medical research include the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service. Alter has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In 2002 he received The International Society of Blood Transfusion Presidential Award. And in 2005, he received the American College of Physicians Award for Outstanding Work in Science as Related to Medicine, and the First International Prize of Inserm (the French equivalent of NIH).
Speaking of Alter's long research career at the time of the 2000 Lasker Award, Dr. Harvey Klein, chief of the Clinical Center Transfusion Medicine Department noted, "As a young research fellow, Dr. Alter co-discovered the Australia antigen, a key to detecting hepatitis B virus. For many investigators that would be the highlight of a career. For Dr. Alter it was only an auspicious beginning."