Albert Zaven Kapikian (1930–2014) was an Armenian-American virologist who developed the first licensed vaccine against rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea in infants.

[5] Kapikian graduated from Cornell Medical College in 1956 and began a career with the National Institutes of Health in 1957.

[citation needed] In 1970 he spent six months in the UK where at the suggestion of his boss he studied the techniques of June Almeida.

Back in the USA he used these techniques to identify non-bacterial gastroenteritis - Norwalk virus.

In 1998 he was appointed deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.