Kevin D. Lafferty 2009 <p><span>Members of the Society, President Conn, colleagues, friends, and particularly students, the Ward Medal recipient, from Clarke Read onward, traditionally recounts how their career was shaped. A decade ago, in a crumbling Kona hotel, the ASP's own tattooed lady, Janine Caira, opened her Ward Medal address with: “To all future Ward Medalists, many of whom I trust are sitting in the audience out there today, I say: savor the moment! You have no idea how much easier it is to be sitting out there where you are than standing up here where I am” (</span><a class="ref" onclick="popRef2('i0022-3395-95-6-1267-Caira1','','','' ); return false;">Caira 1998</a><span>). I certainly didn't imagine that Janine was delivering her advice to me and it is presumptuous to imagine my story is a template for shaping a career. As the title of my talk indicates, it was an accident.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1645/GE-2307.1 en American Society of Parasitologists Acceptance of the 2009 Henry Baldwin Ward Medal: The accidental parasitologist article