The Canadian co-founder of
"It's a great honour and what makes it a really great honour for me is that I've looked at past recipients of this award and it's a very, very distinguished company to be amongst," said Rossi.
"It's humbling and exciting."
He won alongside multiple other researchers based in
The panel for the award calls them leading figures in one of the most outstanding feats in the history of science for leading the way to developing vaccines in an extraordinarily short space of time.
The COVID-19 vaccines by
Rossi, who is no longer with
"Of course you want to see your work make an impact," said Rossi.
"It's satisfying, but did I imagine that it would happen in a global pandemic and
He said he's continuing to try and improve people's lives through science, and has now turned much of his attention to combatting the effects of venomous snake bites in poorer countries.
Rossi said snake bites kill more than 100,000 people per year and maim hundreds of thousands of more, and called the issue a massive global health crisis.
This report by
— With files from The Associated Press
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