In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) and AACC Academy were also both rebranded to the Academy of Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine. The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name, the Academy’s old name, NACB, and/or FACB (one of the old designations for members of the Academy). It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
2010 Morton K. Schwartz Award for Significant Contributions in Cancer Research Diagnostics
Laurence M. Demers, PhD, DABCC, FACB
Dr. Demers is distinguished professor emeritus of pathology and medicine at the M.S. Hershey Medical Center of The Pennsylvania State University in State College. He was the founding director of clinical chemistry and the endocrine laboratory in the University Hospital and director of the clinical research center core laboratory. Dr. Demers has been active in the field of clinical chemistry since the early 1970s, serving AACC in many capacities from the local to national levels. He served as program chair for the Philadelphia section, chaired the Endo Laboratory Improvement Program, and served on several committees, including on decentralized glucose testing and physician’s office testing. He served as 48th national president. He has served as secretary and president of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry. He has served on the editorial boards of Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science, Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, and Journal of Clinical Ligand Assay. His many awards include the Dubin Award from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry. Dr. Demers’ primary research interests have been in the area of biochemical endocrinology, laboratory automation, metabolic bone disease, and breast cancer. His early work in breast cancer led to the development of aromatose inhibitors, which are now the standard of care for treating women with breast cancer. He has published more than 700 papers, including 57 chapters, and has edited seven books.
1997 AACC Past President’s Award
Laurence M. Demers, PhD, will receive this year’s award, sponsored by Allegiance Healthcare Co. Dr. Demers is Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Medicine at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and Associate Director of the Section of Clinical Pathology and Director of Clinical Chemistry and the Core Endocrine Laboratory at the PennState-Geisinger Health System, M.S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr. Demers is a graduate of Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, and received a doctorate in biochemistry from the State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, in 1970. He completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemical Endocrinology at Harvard Medical School in 1972 and, after 1 year as instructor at Harvard, left in 1973 to accept a position as Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In 1982, he was awarded an NIH Fogarty Senior International Fellowship for a sabbatical year in England at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University, where he studied patients with hypertension during pregnancy. Dr. Demers is a diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and a fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.
Dr. Demers has been active in clinical laboratory medicine at the local, state, and national level. He served as Chairman of a technical advisory committee to the State of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Laboratories from 1984 to 1992. He has been active in AACC at the regional and national level for many years in numerous capacities. He served as a member of the Editorial Board of Clinical Chemistry (1985–1995), of its Executive Committee (1987–1995), and as its Editorials Editor (1989–1995). He served on the AACC Board of Directors as an at-large member from 1992 to 1994 and again from 1996 to 1998. He served as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AACC in 1997.
Dr. Demers also served as President and Secretary of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry in 1984 and 1981, respectively. He is a member of The Endocrine Society, the Association of Clinical Scientists, the Society for the Study of Experimental Biology and Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the Clinical Ligand Assay Society, and The Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists. From 1995 to 1997, he served on the Board of Directors of the Clinical Ligand Assay Society. Dr. Demers currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis and the Journal of Clinical Immunoassay. Over the years, Dr. Demers has carried out an extensive research program in his laboratory with NIH grants and pharmaceutical corporate support. His primary research interests have been in the area of steroid metabolism in reproduction, eicosanoids, and endocrine disease, respiratory disease, metabolic bone disease, and breast cancer. Dr. Demers has published 370 papers, including 38 chapters and 3 books.
Dr. Demers has been the recipient of numerous awards. In 1971, he received the Lalor Foundation Award for his work in reproductive endocrinology at Harvard Medical School. In 1974, he also was awarded a Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Foundation First Award for his work on bile acids and liver disease. In 1986, he was the 35th recipient of the AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry. In 1991, he received the Alvin Dubin award from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry for service to the profession of clinical biochemistry. He was the first recipient of The Norman Kubasik Lectureship Award in 1991, given by the Upstate New York section of AACC. He was also selected as the Bernard Brodie Lecturer at the Genesee Hospital in Rochester, New York, in 1996. More recently he was awarded a Distinguished Professorship in the College of Medicine by the President of The Pennsylvania State University.
1991 The Professor Alvin Dubin Award For Outstanding Contributions To The Profession And The Academy
Laurence Demers, PhD, FACB was honored with AACC’s 1991 Professor Alvin Dubin Award For Outstanding Contributions To The Profession And The Academy.
1986 Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry
Laurence M. Demers will receive the 35th AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry. The award is sponsored by Ames Division, Miles Laboratories, Inc.
Dr. Demers was born in Lawrence, MA. He received his A.B. degree from Merrimack College, North Andover, Mass. He then entered the service as a Medical Service Corps Officer with initial training as a clinical laboratory officer at the Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. He served a year of internship in clinical pathology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Additional service assignments included Chief, Clinical Pathology, 121 Evacuation Hospital, Korea, and Chief, Clinical Chemistry, Department of Pathology, Fitzsimmons General Hospital, Denver, CO.
In 1966, Dr. Demers obtained a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Department of Biochemistry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, where he received his doctorate in 1970. He then went on to Harvard Medical School as postdoctoral fellow in endocrinology and biological chemistry under the tutelage of Roy Greep in endocrinology and Claude Villee in biological chemistry. In 1973, he joined the Department of Pathology Faculty at the M.S. Hershey Medical Center of The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, as an assistant professor of pathology, where he has been ever since. In 1982 he was promoted to full professor and is currently director of Clinical Chemistry and the Core Endocrine Laboratory and associate director, Division of Clinical Pathology, at the Medical Center.
Dr. Demers has extensive research interest in applied clinical endocrinology, clinical pharmacology, and clinical chemistry, with particular emphasis on immunoassay techniques. Of particular interest is his research on the prostaglandins and their clinical relevance to human disorders, including human reproductive disorders and cancer. To this end in 1982, Dr. Demers received a Forgarty International Fellowship Award from the National Institute of Health for study at the University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England. During this year he published 10 papers on his studies on toxemia of pregnancy and dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Dr. Demers pioneered the early prostaglandin research on dysmenorrhea and published the first case report on the successful use of prostaglandin synthesis inhibitors in this condition, which is the standard form of therapy used today for this condition. Dr. Demers also pioneered the immunoassay of bile acid testing and its use in the diagnosis of liver disease. Dr. Demers has published over 198 papers, including 20 chapters and three books on his research.
A member of AACC since 1974, Dr. Demers currently serves on the Editorial Board for Clinical Chemistry, is a member of the ENDO-LIP Committee, and is currently serving on the AACC Task Force on Educational Programs in support of satellite and physician office testing. He also is on the Editorial Board of Laboratory Management and the Journal of Clinical Immunoassay. He is immediate past president of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry and is currently chairman of a Clinical Chemistry Technical Advisory Committee to the State of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Health, Division of Laboratory Improvement, for matters of accreditation and licensure.
Dr. Demers is an active member of AACC, Endocrine Society, NACB, Society for the Study of Reproduction, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Clinical Ligand Assay Society, ASCP, New York Academy of Science, and Sigma Xi. He has been listed in American Men of Science, Who’s Who in America, and Men of Achievement. His awards have included a Lalor Foundation Award (1972), Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Foundation Award (1974), Ayerst Award (1976), Fogarty Senior International Fellowship Award (1982), and the Presidential Award from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.
Dr. Demers is active in the education of medical technologists, medical students, and residents in clinical pathology at the M.S. Hershey Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital, Lancaster, PA.