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 following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
1999 Edwin F. Ullman Award
Norman G. Anderson received the second annual Edwin F. Ullman Award at the AACC Oak Ridge Conference on April 23, 1999, in San Jose, California. The award, sponsored by Dade Behring, Inc., was established to recognize outstanding contributions that advance the technology of clinical laboratory science. In conjunction with receiving the award, Dr. Anderson made a presentation entitled “Emerging Infectious Diseases: New Challenges for Clinical Chemistry”.
Dr. Anderson is currently chairman and chief scientist of Large Scale Biology Corporation in Rockville, Maryland. He is well known for the development of centrifugal clinical analyzers and centrifuges for vaccine purification. He worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 21 years, where he invented the zonal ultracentrifuge for subcellular fractionation and organized a joint National Institutes of Health and Atomic Energy Commission program to develop methods for the isolation of oncogenic viruses. This work led to the development of the large K series vaccine centrifuges still in use for large-scale virus production and vaccine purification. In 1968, he invented the first computer-controlled clinical analyzer. His methods for centrifugal analyzers appeared regularly in Clinical Chemistry for over a decade.
In 1976, he and his son, Dr. Leigh Anderson, moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where they collaborated to develop the Iso-Dalt system for high resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis and to apply it to clinical chemistry. Examples of this system have appeared in Clinical Chemistry.
In 1980, the Andersons proposed the Human Protein Index as a major bioscience project and enlarged on the idea in 1983 by writing the first proposal for the Human Genome Project.
In 1986, with associates from Argonne, they formed the Large Scale Biology Corporation to apply high-resolution quantitative protein mapping to the study of disease processes and drug effects. These studies have been fundamental to the emerging field of proteomics, which now includes high-resolution electrophoresis, mass spectrometric protein identification, high-resolution cell fractionation, and computerized management of large databases. As an extension of his cell fractionation studies, Dr. Anderson currently is developing a new system for the rapid separation and identification of viruses in clinical samples.
Dr. Anderson holds 29 patents with two pending and has published more than 300 scientific papers.
The Edwin F. Ullman Award, which includes a plaque and a $5000 honorarium, was initiated by and is funded by Behring Diagnostics to honor Dr. Ullman and to recognize his contributions to that company and to the field of clinical chemistry. A pioneer in immunoassay technology who received more than 150 US patents, Dr. Ullman is most widely known for his development of the EMIT assay, an advance that revolutionized testing for abused and therapeutic drugs.
1976 Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry
Norman G. Anderson will receive the 1976 AACCAward for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry, sponsored by the Ames Co., at the 28th National Meeting of AACC. This will be the 25th year that this award has been given.
Dr. Anderson is a native of Davenport, Washington, and obtained his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University. His research interests are many, a basic one being the description of cell function and cell pathology at the molecular level. He has been concerned with the development of some of the instrumentation and separations systems required for this purpose, including the zonal ultracentrifuge (1955–1968), high-pressure chromatography for nucleic acid derivatives and urinary constituents, development of large-scale continuous-flow-with-banding ultracentrifuges for the large-scale purification of influenza and other viral vaccines (1964–68), development of the gemsaec computer-interfaced centrifugal analyzer (1968–71); development of methods for protein concentration dependent on the Mazur effect (1973–74); and development of cyclum systems for cyclic affinity chromatography (1972–74). The gemsaec has become a valuable and unique tool in the clinical laboratory. A miniaturized version, which occupies only one cubic foot, was developed for NASA’s Skylab program.
Dr. Anderson has over 300 publications in cell physiology and fractionation, virus and vaccine purification, zonal and vaccine centrifuge development, high-pressure chromatography, centrifugal analyzer development, and fetal antigens in cancer and immunochemistry.
He has received many awards: the Van Slyke Award from the New York Section of AACC, 1974; West Germany Academy of Sciences, 1973; Biomedical Engineering Society, 1973; John Scott Medal and Award, 1972, for the invention of the zonal ultracentrifuge (previous winners include Fleming, Land, J. J. Thompson, and Madame Curie); AEC Citation for contributions to the development of the influenza vaccine, 1972; award from the German Association for Clinical Chemistry for the gemsaec Analyzer as the most outstanding analytical advance worldwide in biochemical and clinical analysis during a two-year period, 1972; Eli Lilly Lectureship; Sigma Xi Award; IR100 Award; and a Special Citation by Edward Steichen for submarine photography.
In keeping with his many interests, Dr. Anderson belongs to a variety of societies: AACC, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Association for Cancer Research, American Physiological Society, Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, Biophysics Society, Biomedical Engineering Society, Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, and the Society of General Physiologists.
Dr. Anderson was the Director of the Molecular Anatomy Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1968–1975, and a faculty member of the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His present position is Professor, Department of Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and Associate Director for Basic Sciences, South Carolina Memorial Cancer Institute.