Lifetime Achievement Awards
2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions
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Max Essex, DVM, PhD, is the Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at Harvard University, Chair of the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, and Chair of the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute in Gaborone, Botswana. He was one of the first to link animal and human retroviruses to immunosuppressive disease. For this he shared the Lasker Award, the highest medical research award given in the United States, with Gallo and Montagnier in 1986. With his student, T. H. Lee, he was among the first to identify gp120, the surface protein of HIV-1 that is used for blood screening or diagnosis of infection and is the basis of many preventive HIV vaccines. He received numerous awards, 9 honorary degrees and holds 15 patents. He has published over 500 papers and 10 books, the latest being Saturday Is for Funerals. His current research includes comprehensive “test-and-treat” approaches to controlling the HIV epidemic, molecular epidemiology, the role of host genetics factors and chemoprophylaxis, with an emphasis on southern Africa.
2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service
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Bernadine P. Healy, M.D., a graduate from Vassar College and Harvard Medical School, had a remarkable career beginning with her professorship of medicine at Johns Hopkins and her recognition in cardiology and research. On leave from Johns Hopkins, she served as deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology under President Reagan. As director of National Institutes of Health in the early 1990s, she initiated the Women’s Health Initiative and the Intramural Program of the Human Genome Project. Dr. Healy was Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University where she and her colleagues developed Ohio’s first School of Public Health. As President of the American Red Cross, she managed half of America’s blood supply and supervised emergency preparedness during the 9/11 attacks. Dr. Healy was the Health Editor for U.S. News and World Report writing on science, medicine and health policy. She published two books, A New Prescription for Women’s Health and Living Time. In Living Time, Dr. Healy shared her personal experience with cancer: “It’s a universal fact: when serious illness strikes, we are the same vulnerable souls.” Dr. Healy died on August 6, 2011 from brain cancer. She is survived by her husband Dr. Floyd D. Loop and two daughters, Bartlett and Marie.