A leading AIDS researcher at the School of Public Health yesterday was named a recipient of one of the most prestigious prizes in American medicine.

Professor of Virology Myron E. Essex, who made milestone discoveries in the initial quest to identify the AIDS virus, will travel to New York City in November to accept the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award.

At the same ceremony, awards will go to National Institutes of Health physician Robert C. Gallo, chief of the tumor cell biology laboratory, and Luc Montagnier, professor of viral oncology at France's Pasteur Institute. The scientists are credited with isolating the AIDS virus.

The Lasker Award will be given to Essex "for his unique contributions to understanding the acquired immune syndrome," said the New York-based Lasker committee. The award carries a $15,000 honorarium and is considered by some to be the American equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

The 42-year-old Lasker Foundation cited Essex for critical work dating back to the early '70s, including the discovery of the first cancer-causing virus.

"Dr. Essex's group has identified the protein products most closely linked to the lethal effects of the retrovirus, and the viral antigen--glycoprotein 120--the likely target for preventive vaccines against AIDS," the Foundation's citation read.

"These discoveries may contribute substantially to the development of a vaccine against AIDS," the statement continued.

Essex could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In addition to the awards to the AIDS researchers, four other Lasker Awards will also be given this year, according to the statement.

Previous recipients of the prize, which is given each year for medical research and public service, include the physicians who invented the pap smear test for cancer, scientists who developed the cure for syphilis and others who originated the polio vaccine.

Fourty-two Lasker winners have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.