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AACC |
News Release |
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Advancing Clinical Laboratory Science Worldwide |
for immediate release |
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CONTACT: Joanna Grimes |
New Orleans, July 25, 1999-AACC honored eight scientists for their outstanding achievements at its annual awards ceremony. The 1999 recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry was former AACC president Lemuel J. Bowie, PhD, whose untimely death in December stunned his many friends and admirers. Dr. Bowie was professor of pathology at Northwestern University Medical School and director of the clinical laboratories at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, lllinois.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions Through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry was presented to Jean C. Joseph, PhD. Dr. Joseph is chief operating officer for Comprehensive Drug Testing in Long Beach, California, a company that administers drug and alcohol programs for clients in professional sports, education, and business.
D. Robert Dufour, MD, won the AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education. Dr. Dufour is chief of pathology and laboratory medicine service at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC, and professor of pathology at George Washington University Medical Center and clinical professor of pathology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
The Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research was presented to Eleftherios P. Diamandis, MD, PhD, who is head of the section of clinical biochemistry at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and head of the division of clinical biochemistry at the University of Toronto.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator Award went to Elizabeth M. Rohlfs, PhD, associate director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and clinical assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill.
G bor L. Kov cs, MD, PhD, received the 1999 AACC International Fellowship, which enables recognized clinical chemists to promote the practice and profession of clinical chemistry abroad. Dr. Kov cs is director of the health science college at the University Medical School of Pecs and both medical director and central laboratory director at the Markusovsky Teaching Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Hungary.
AACC awarded The AACC Lectureship Award for 1999 to the internationally renowned scientist, Charles H. Hennekens, MD, DrPH. Dr. Hennekens' most recent positions were as professor of medicine and of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School, professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, and chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
The 1999 AACC Past President's Award was presented to Stephen E. Kahn, PhD. Dr. Kahn is director of chemistry, toxicology, and near patient testing; associate professor of pathology; and associate professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.
As current president K. Michael Parker, PhD, noted in his award letter to Dr. Kahn: "Your visionary leadership sowed the seeds for the Public Affairs Program, which will reap a future harvest of increased recognition for our profession. I truly believe that these efforts and many more too numerous to mention will mark your year as president as one of the greatest."
The following corporations generously sponsored the 1999 AACC Awards: Bayer Diagnostics (AACC Lectureship and Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry Awards); Beckman Coulter (Outstanding Contributions Through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry); SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories (Outstanding Contributions in Education); Roche Diagnostics (Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research and the Young Investigator Award); Becton Dickinson VACUTAINER Systems, Becton Dickinson and Company (International Travel Fellowship); and Allegiance Healthcare Corporation (Past President's Award).
The deadline for AACC Award nominations is December 31, 1999. Detailed information about each award begins on page xxii of the 1999 AACC Membership Directory. For more information about the awards or to apply, contact Joanna Grimes by phone at (202) 835-8740 or 1-800-892-1800 ext. 740, or by email at jgrimes@aacc.org.
AACC is a Washington, DC-based, nonprofit, professional association with a membership of more than 11,000 clinical laboratory directors and laboratory scientists, clinical and molecular pathologists, medical technologists and others in related fields. Through educational services and publications, AACC works to improve and advance laboratory services to enhance public health and patient care.
I would like to again thank the members of the AACC Awards Committee, who are charged with the job of finding and evaluating outstanding contributors to clinical laboratory science. The committee chooses the recipients from a large and deserving field of candidates. On behalf of all AACC members, Dr. Ann Gronowski, thank you for the time and effort you and your committee members have volunteered.
We also owe a debt to the corporations without whose generosity there would be no AACC Awards Program. By sponsoring these eight AACC awards, they have demonstrated their deep concern for quality in research and education and their devotion to the field of clinical laboratory science.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry is sponsored by Bayer Diagnostics. The oldest of the Association's awards, it is earned not by a single achievement, but by an entire career of accomplishments that enhance the practice and profession of clinical chemistry.
This year's award recognizes the achievements of our longtime member, friend, and former president Lemuel J. Bowie, Ph.D. But it is with great sadness that I make this presentation-because Dr. Bowie passed away in December.
At the time of his death, Dr. Bowie was professor of pathology at Northwestern University Medical School and director of the clinical laboratories and of the division of clinical pathology at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois.
Dr. Bowie's outstanding contributions to our field came through research, teaching, and service.
As a researcher, he made major contributions to our understanding of hemoglobinopathies and thalassemias. He discovered and named a previously unrecognized abnormal hemoglobin, hemoglobin evanston. His research led to 41 articles, one book chapter, one patent, 53 abstracts, and five monographs.
He was an outstanding educator at both San Diego State University and Northwestern University.
His service to the AACC included serving as president and twice chairing the annual meeting. As president, he successfully led AACC's first effort in outcome studies. He served on numerous local section and national committees, chairing many of them. He was a founder of the San Diego section in 1977. He also served on the board of directors of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.
But Lem Bowie's impact cannot be summed up in this list of professional accomplishments; we miss Lem Bowie the person. We miss seeing his broad smile and double-breasted red blazer at this meeting; his spirit remains with us today. And it is an honor to have Dr. Bowie's family with us this evening to receive this award on his behalf.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions Through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry is sponsored by Beckman Coulter. Since 1966, this award has recognized clinical chemists who have served their profession tirelessly.
We are honored to confer this year's award on Jean C. Joseph, Ph.D. Dr. Joseph is Chief Operating Officer for Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., in Long Beach, California, a company that administers drug and alcohol programs for many professional sports organizations and for clients in the transportation industry, schools, and public and private sector businesses.
Dr. Joseph has been active with the American Association for Clinical Chemistry since becoming a member in 1977. She has been influential in local sections, including acting as treasurer, program chair, delegate, and chair. She was a member of the AACC Board of Directors from 1993 to 1995 and a member of the board's Executive Committee. She has served as a member of the Delta Group, the Task Force on Governance, and the Program Coordinating Commission.
In addition to her activities with the AACC, Dr. Joseph has been active with other laboratory organizations. She has served the American Board of Clinical Chemistry on the Board of Directors for six years, as secretary-treasurer for two years, and as president for two years. She has served on the National Committee on Clinical Laboratory Standards' Area Committee on Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology. And she is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education is made possible by the generosity of SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories.
This year's deserving winner is D. Robert Dufour, M.D. Dr. Dufour is chief of pathology and laboratory medicine service at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; professor of pathology at George Washington University Medical Center; and clinical professor of pathology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Dr. Dufour has been active in educational programs his entire career. He has taught on the faculty of four medical schools and developed two computer-assisted software programs for teaching medical students the cost-effective use of laboratory tests. He is the main faculty member responsible for training in clinical chemistry for three different residency programs.
He has received numerous awards for his teaching abilities, including as faculty of the year, and has been recognized four times as an AACC Outstanding Speaker.
He chaired the AACC Continuing Education Committee for three years, and oversaw the reinvention of the ACCENT program. He chaired the Continuing Medical Education Advisory Committee for its first four years, leading to full accreditation for the AACC as a continuing medical education provider. He has been co-director of the clinical chemistry review course since its inception in 1990.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research, sponsored by Roche Diagnostics, goes to a scientist whose focus on a specialized area has brought noteworthy success.
This year, the winner is Eleftherios P. Diamandis, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Diamandis is head of the section of clinical biochemistry at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and professor and head of the division of clinical biochemistry at the University of Toronto.
His research interests include advanced analytical technology and instrumentation, in particular the technique of time-resolved fluoremetry and its applications for developing highly sensitive immunological and molecular techniques. He is also interested in designing new methods for diagnosis and monitoring of breast, prostate, and other cancers and in the identification of new genes involved in various cancers. He has published extensively on prostate-specific antigen and its use in prostrate and breast cancer diagnostics, as well as on the role of p53 tumor suppressor in carcinogenesis and its clinical applications. His group recently identified a number of novel genes in the kallikrein gene family and molecularly characterized the kallikrein gene locus in humans.
He has made presentations to many national and international meetings and has published more than 250 research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He co-edited a book entitled "Immunoassay" published in 1996.
The AACC Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator is sponsored by Roche Diagnostics. The recipient of this award will be the 25th to win the honor, which recognizes the professional development of scientists whose outstanding early accomplishments promise valuable future achievement.
Elizabeth M. Rohlfs, Ph.D., has won the honor this year. Dr. Rohlfs is associate director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill.
At UNC, under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Silverman, Dr. Rohlfs developed and evaluated protein truncation analysis and allele-specific assays for the detection of disease-causing mutations in the breast and ovarian cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Based on this work, breast cancer susceptibility testing is now offered at UNC as part of the Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic.
Dr. Rohlfs has continued to extend this work in clinical testing and development of cancer genetics testing. She has an active research project that has led to the identification of novel homologous recombination events in BRCA1 that result in large genomic rearrangements that account for a significant proportion of the mutation spectrum in BRCA 1.
Dr. Rohlfs' research has already led to a dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals, twenty published abstracts and poster presentations, and several book sections.
The AACC International Travel Fellowship, sponsored by the VACUTAINER Division of Becton Dickinson and Company, was created to enable a well-recognized clinical laboratory scientist with wide experience in a particular field to travel to promote the profession of clinical chemistry in a country other than his or her own.
This year's winner is Gábor L. Kovács, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Kovács is director of the health science college at the University Medical School of Pecs and both medical director and central laboratory director at the Markusovsky Teaching Hospital in Szombathely, Hungary. This tertiary care facility is one of the largest hospitals in Hungary.
He has been a leader in the reorganization of laboratory sciences and service, and in the implementation of modern technologies and quality management in Hungary. He served for six years as the chairman of the Hungarian Board of Clinical Pathologists. During his tenure a national not-for-profit external quality control organization was founded, quality manuals were made mandatory, and colleges of laboratory technologists were set up in Hungary. He is currently serving as president of the Hungarian Society of Clinical Pathology.
He has also been a leader in international affairs as an initiator of the regional "Alps-Adria Conferences" on laboratory medicine involving seven European countries and as the Hungarian Society of Clinical Pathology's representative to the IFCC.
Dr. Kovács has published 55 book chapters and 125 original publications in various international journals.
We wish him well in his fellowship and are eager to hear more about his plans.
The AACC Lectureship Award, sponsored by Bayer Diagnostics, is bestowed upon an individual whose efforts have made a significant impact on the field of clinical laboratory science.
The AACC Awards Committee has selected as the 1999 lecturer an internationally renowned scientist, Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Dr. Hennekens' most recent positions were as Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine and Professor of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School and professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, as well as chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Dr. Hennekens' research concerns the epidemiology of acute and chronic disease, in particular, cardiovascular disease and cancer. His productive research has elucidated a number of causal, preventive, and therapeutic fartors, most notably low-dose aspirin in cardiovascular disease.
He is president of the American Epidemiological Society and part president of the Society for Epidemiological Research. He has been editor-in-chief of the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine" and was founding editor-in-chief of the "Annals of Epidemiology."
Dr. Hennekens is co-author of 405 original reports, 120 reviews and book chapters, and 3 textbooks, including "Epidemiology in Medicine," which is used widely in medical and public health schools in the United States and abroad.
As president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, it gives me particular pleasure to present the next award. The Annual Meeting offers an excellent platform to publicly thank the individual who guided us the previous year. The AACC Past President's Award, sponsored by Allegiance Healthcare Corporation, expresses our appreciation for the leadership and dedication of Stephen E. Kahn, Ph.D.
Dr. Kahn served with distinction during the transitional year that marked the AACC's 50th' anniversary. Under his leadership the Association focused on addressing member needs and streamlining the organizational structure to better serve members and the profession.
The AACC moved forward with a major initiative to improve governance that required the approval of the membership for changes in the by-laws. Dr. Kahn devoted great effort to promote these changes and to educate the membership about them. Our members responded with overwhelming support for the changes because they understood them and were confident in the Association's direction and leadership.
Under his leadership the Program Coordination Commission was created to facilitate the rapid development of cutting-edge programs. The provision of Internet-based services underwent phenomenal expansion, with Clinical Chemistry Journal going on-line and web-based courses being offered. An improved homepage received the Biomedical Marketing Association's award for excellence and the number of users who accessed the site each month continued to grow.
These efforts and many more too numerous to mention will mark his year as president as one of the greatest. His hard work made my job much easier this year, and I thank him for his service to the AACC in 1998 and for his support during 1999.
Thank you all for attending tonight. I am proud to have presided over this important ceremony and I am equally proud that the members have selected me to lead their Association.
These are challenging times to be practicing clinical chemistry. Our success as researchers continues to lead to ever more rapid and sensitive tests; as managers, we are asked to continually innovate and control costs while improving the quality of care. In such times, we are fortunate indeed to have the leadership of professionals like those we have honored tonight.
They exemplify the commitment to excellence that clinical chemists bring to their work and research. The accomplishments of the people who have won these awards tonight will continue to inspire us to go about our work with renewed interest and determination