WASHINGTON - The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) announces its 2012 Award Winners. The awards will be presented at AACC’s 2012 Annual Meeting, which takes place July 15 – 19 in Los Angeles, CA:
Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Considered the premier award of the Association, it is granted as a ‘lifetime achievement’ award for contributions to the field of clinical chemistry. Individuals selected for this award have made significant contributions in all aspects of clinical chemistry, particularly service, education and research; have achieved international stature and reputation by virtue of their efforts; and have demonstrated long standing service to the AACC, either at the grass roots, national and/or international levels. The 2012 award winner is Thomas Moyer, PhD, Director, Metals Laboratory, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
Outstanding Contributions Through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry
This award recognizes individuals who have worked throughout their careers to advance the professional status of clinical chemists and the professional objectives of AACC. Historically, this award has been conferred upon our senior scientists, who have made significant contributions to clinical chemistry in its growth phase. The 2012 award winner is John Sherwin, PhD, of Canonsburg, PA.
Outstanding Contributions in Education
This award recognizes an individual who has devoted a major portion of his/her professional life to enhancing the practice and profession of clinical chemistry through education. The educator selected for this award has made significant, innovative, and/or cumulatively outstanding contributions to education in clinical laboratory science. These contributions should include excellence in education beyond the local level, with widespread recognition of the recipient's excellence which may include teaching, directing, mentoring, writing, and speaking abilities, ideally to multiple levels of audiences. The 2012 award winner is David Sacks, MD, Senior Investigator & Chief, Clinical Chemistry Service at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
AACC-NACB Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry In a Selected Area of Research
This award recognizes especially meritorious research contributions by an individual in a specific area of clinical chemistry. A clinical chemist who receives this award has achieved national and international status for his or her pioneering efforts in an area of research considered fundamental to the science and has been considered among the world’s foremost experts in that specific discipline. The 2012 award winner is Y. M. Dennis Lo, PhD, Professor of Chemical Pathology & Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator
This award recognizes and encourages the professional development of a young investigator who has demonstrated exceptional scientific achievements early in his or her career. It is given based on the degree of originality exhibited in the individual's creative process and the significance of the research conducted relevant to the field of clinical laboratory medicine. It is conferred upon an individual who has the potential to be an outstanding investigator of the future. (The individual must not have reached the age of 40 by January 1 in the year in which the award is to be given and must be an AACC member.) The 2012 award winner Andy Hoofnagle, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
The AACC Helen Free Travel Award
New for 2012, the Helen Free Travel Award was established to recognize Helen Free, whose many achievements include the development of the first urine glucose dipstick. This award is for non-doctoral applicants residing in the United States only and is worth $2,000 to assist in travel to attend any AACC meeting within a 12 month period, the award winner is Xuan Sue Lam MT(ASCP); MB(ASCP), University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ.
Morton K. Schwartz Award for Significant Contributions in Cancer Research Diagnostics
This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions in cancer research through diagnostics. The scientist who receives this award has achieved national and international status for his or her groundbreaking work in clinical diagnostic research in cancer and is considered to be among the world’s foremost experts in that specific arena. Awarded in even numbered years only, the 2012 award winner is Hans Lilja, MD, PhD, Attending Research Clinical Chemist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.
About AACC
Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of breaking laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.myadlm.org.