--- description: Celina Turchi is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Tom Frieden wrote about the researcher. title: Celina Turchi by Tom Frieden: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97a8ed3d6b0d71bd/6988c331cf40a87be5c47466/time-100-2017-celina-turchi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Celina Turchi by Tom Frieden  Photograph by Hans von Manteuffel Never before had a mosquito bite been found to cause a birth defect, but after a string of troubling encounters with her patients, Dr. Celina Turchi knew something was wrong. An infectious-disease specialist in Recife, Brazil—which was the epicenter of the first major outbreak of Zika-associated microcephaly—Turchi worked around the clock, missing meals and sleep to figure out what was going on. She understood that this was a global crisis requiring global collaboration, so she reached out to experts from around the world, facilitated their work and collaboration in Brazil and openly shared what she and her colleagues were finding so that the world could learn about this unprecedented threat. Turchi’s studies were part of an emergency investigation that ultimately proved that Zika does indeed cause microcephaly—something many skeptics doubted. There is still much we don’t know about Zika: why some exposed infants get microcephaly and others don’t; what proportion of normal-appearing infected babies will have developmental problems; and, most important, how to prevent Zika-associated neurological damage. Her work and partnership with other scientists is bringing the world closer to answering those and other crucial questions. Turchi is passionate, driven and a model of the kind of global leadership and collaboration needed to protect human health. _Frieden is the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/"},"headline":"Celina Turchi","datePublished":"2017-04-19T18:32:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:20:58.523Z","description":"Celina Turchi is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Tom Frieden wrote about the researcher.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/","keywords":["time 100 pioneers"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97a8ed3d6b0d71bd/6988c331cf40a87be5c47466/time-100-2017-celina-turchi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97a8ed3d6b0d71bd/6988c331cf40a87be5c47466/time-100-2017-celina-turchi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/","name":"Celina Turchi"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742680/celina-turchi/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```