BCRF Grantees in the News!
During the first half of 2010, the following BCRF-funded grantees were recognized for their scientific accomplishments and/or elected by their peers to head national biomedical organizations.
On March 22, BCRF's Scientific Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of Scientific Advisors,
Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was one of three individuals honored for clinical excellence and presented with a National Physician of the Year Award by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. Honorees are selected based on an extensive process involving thousands of nominations by physicians.
On April 6, Dr. William Kaelin of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School was named one of five recipients of a 2010 Canada Gardner Award. Dr. Kaelin was honored for identifying the molecular mechanisms that may pave the way for new therapies to treat diseases ranging from heart disease and anemia to cancer. In another honor, Dr. Kaelin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences; also elected was Dr. Charles Sawyers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Dr. Judy E. Garber of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, a member of BCRF's Scientific Advisory Committee, as its president-elect. AACR's membership includes 30,000 researchers, health care professionals, and cancer survivors and advocates worldwide.
Dr. Kornelia Polyak, also of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, has been elected to serve on the AACR Board of Directors.
In April, Dr. Stuart Schnitt of Beth Israel-Deaconess/Harvard Medical School was inducted as President of the US and
Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), an organization of 11,000 physician pathologist members worldwide.
Dr. George Sledge of Indiana University School of Medicine was inaugurated as President of the American Society of
Clinical Oncology (ASCO) at the organization's annual meeting in Chicago in June. ASCO has more than 27,000 members and is comprised of clinical oncologists from all oncology disciplines and sub-specialties from over 100 countries.
Dr. Patricia A. Ganz of UCLA, a member of BCRF's Scientific Advisory Committee, has been selected as the first recipient of the ASCO Research Professorship in Comparative Effectiveness Research, as an outstanding researcher who has made and continues to make significant contributions that have changed the direction of breast cancer research and who will provide mentorship to junior researchers. The Comparative Effectiveness Research Professorship in Breast Cancer was established at ASCO this year with a grant from BCRF, so it is especially heartening that Dr. Ganz was independently selected by the ASCO Awards Committee.
Dr. Nancy E. Davidson of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, a member of BCRF's Executive Board of Scientific Advisors, has been awarded the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award by the ASCO Board of Directors, in recognition of her distinguished accomplishments in advancing the field of breast cancer and exceptional mentoring abilities. (Two of Dr. Davidson's predecessors in this award are also BCRF grantees: Dr. Daniel Hayes in 2007, and Dr. Carlos Arteaga in 2009.)
