EmailPrint BY MARCY SHORTUSE- For Dr. Richard Novak, a “vacation” in the time of COVID-19 is a bit of an oxymoron, yet he is giving it a try this week at one of his favorite places, Little Gasparilla Island. He heads the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Illinois-Chicago and has led HIV clinical care and vaccine research efforts for more than 25 years. Novak is now also known as “the man behind UIC’s COVID-19 vaccine Phase III clinical trial,” so it’s no stretch of the imagination to figure out he is taking phone interviews and fielding questions about the virus everywhere he goes. His name is now known worldwide as being synonymous with some of the most groundbreaking studies regarding this mysterious virus that has come upon us in the United States and changed our way of living.