Endocrine Society Announces 2009 Laureate Award Winners

Main Category: Endocrinology
Article Date: 18 Jun 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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The Endocrine Society is pleased to announce the 2009 Laureate Awards established in 1944 to recognize the highest achievements in endocrinology including: science, leadership, teaching and service. This year's Laureate Awards were presented at ENDO 09, the 91st Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society, being held June 10-13, in Washington, DC.

The Endocrine Society's 2009 Laureate Award winners are:

- Daniel Drucker, MD - Clinical Investigator Award Lecture. This annual award honors an internationally recognized clinical investigator who has contributed significantly to the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and therapy of endocrine diseases. Drucker is recognized for pioneering molecular, genetic, and physiological studies of glucagon-like peptides, their receptors, and dipeptidyl peptidase 4. This work has led to mechanisms of action and critical roles in glucose homeostasis, and provided scientific basis for novel and effective therapies for diabetes, obesity and gastrointestinal disorders. Drucker resides in Toronto, Canada.

- David Goltzman, MD - Gerald D. Aurbach Award Lecture. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to research in endocrinology. Goltzman, over his 30-year career, has utilized a wide range of in vitro and in vivo techniques to make outstanding contributions to our understanding of the biology of parathyroid hormone (PTH), parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), and vitamin D. Goltzman resides in Westmount, Canada.

- Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann, MD - Distinguished Educator Award. This annual award recognizes exceptional achievement as an educator in the discipline of endocrinology and metabolism. Gutierrez-Hartmann is a founding member of the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Molecular Biology and the Medical Scientist Training Program. In the past 20 years he has supervised 5 junior faculty, 18 post-doctoral research fellows and graduate students, and 68 high school, undergraduate and medical students in his laboratory. Gutierrez-Hartman resides in Aurora, Colorado.

- J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD - Fred Conrad Koch Award. This annual award recognizes exceptional contributions to endocrinology and includes a $25,000 honorarium. Jameson described the first mutations in several key regulators of reproduction, including LH, FSH, and SF1. He established the role of DAX1 in sex determination and helped unravel how mutant thyroid hormone receptors cause thyroid hormone resistance. Jameson resides in Winnetka, Illinois.

- Fred Karsch, PhD - Roy O. Greep Award Lecture. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to research in endocrinology. Karsch's body of work on the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis is critical to the understanding of steroid feedback, documented by 35 years of continuous NIH funding and over 170 publications. Karsch resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

- Karen Knudsen, PhD - Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award. This annual award recognizes an exceptionally promising young clinical or basic investigator. Knudsen is recognized for scientific achievements in the study of androgen action in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer, mentoring of students and fellows, and for her tremendous service to the scientific community. Knudsen resides in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

- Lynnette Nieman, MD - Distinguished Physician Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of clinical endocrinology. Nieman has been a translational investigator for her entire career, working as both a scientist and in the clinic. Her studies in reproductive biology have focused on the use of progesterone antagonists as components of new and potentially safer contraceptive regimens and as a treatment for fibroids. She showed that continuous treatment with a progesterone antagonist was an effective contraceptive in the Rhesus monkey and in women. Nieman resides in Bethesda, Maryland.

- E. Chester Ridgway, MD - Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding leadership in fundamental or clinical endocrinology. Ridgway's research launched the careers of numerous trainees, and includes defining contributions on expression and regulation of TSH, measurements of serum hTSH, and its use to evaluate thyroid function and to treat thyroid cancer. Ridgway resides in Aurora, Colorado.

- Constantine Stratakis, MD - Ernst Oppenheimer Award. This annual award is presented to young investigators in recognition of accomplishments in the field of basic or clinical endocrinology. Stratakis identified the genetic defects associated with multiple endocrine genetic syndromes. He first identified the gene for Carney complex and primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease. This discovery was followed by the recent identification of phosphodiesterase genes and their mutations in other adrenal hyperplasias. Stratakis with Dr. Carney also described recently a new disease (Carney-Stratakis syndrome). Stratakis resides in Rockville, Maryland.

- Theo Visser, PhD - Edwin B. Astwood Award Lecture. This annual award recognizes outstanding research in endocrinology. Visser has made substantive contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms for the critical role of the iodothyronine deiodinases in physiology and pathophysiology. More recently, he has provided new insights into how thyroid hormones enter cells via plasma membrane transporter proteins establishing a new field in thyroid research. Visser resides in Poortugaal, Netherlands.

- Margaret Wierman, MD - Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes distinguished service in the field of endocrinology. Wierman's prolific contributions to The Endocrine Society include service on and chairing the Annual Meeting Steering Committee and the Meetings and Educational Programs Committee, Councilor-at-Large and service on the Finance and the Nominating Committee. Wierman is also past-president of Women in Endocrinology and has served on and chaired multiple NIH Study Sections. Wierman resides in Denver, Colorado.

Source
The Endocrine Society