The Endocrine Society today announced it has chosen 18 accomplished endocrinologists as winners of the organization’s prestigious 2016 Laureate Awards.
Established in 1944, the awards recognize the highest achievements in the endocrinology field, including groundbreaking research and innovations in clinical care. The Endocrine Society will present more than $100,000 in awards to the winners at ENDO 2016, the Society’s 98th Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston, MA from April 1-4, 2016.
The Endocrine Society’s 2016 Laureate Award winners are:
- Benita S. Katzenellenbogen, PhD, and John A. Katzenellenbogen, PhD – Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award. The Society’s highest honor, this annual award recognizes lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to the field of endocrinology. The award includes a $25,000 honorarium. Dr. Benita Katzenellenbogen is currently the Swanlund Chaired Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Dr. John Katzenellenbogen is the Swanlund Chaired Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. Their contributions to the field of endocrinology have improved the understanding of the broad actions of estrogens and their receptors in diverse target tissues, and have spanned more than four decades. Their pioneering work defined the multifaceted modes by which these nuclear receptors function and are regulated. These seminal contributions have highlighted novel approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of hormone-responsive cancers and beneficial modes of tissue-selective estrogen action in promoting women’s health.
- Robert H. Eckel, MD – Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award. This annual award honors an internationally recognized clinical investigator who has contributed significantly to understanding the pathogenesis and therapy of endocrine and metabolic diseases. Eckel has published both basic and translational research focusing on the pathophysiologic mechanisms of obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, and how they relate to cardiovascular disease. Using human, genetically modified animal and tissue culture studies, he has concentrated on the impact of nutrition and hormones on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and how this relates to energy balance and body weight regulation. Eckel is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and the Charles A. Boettcher Chair in Atherosclerosis at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Director of the Lipid Clinic at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, CO. He has served as president of four national organizations, including the American Heart Association.
- M. Carol Greenlee, MD – Outstanding Clinical Practitioner Award. This annual award recognizes extraordinary contributions by a practicing endocrinologist to the endocrine and/or medical community. Since 1986, Greenlee has worked in private practice in Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Her current practice, Western Slope Endocrinology in Grand Junction, CO, was among the first in the nation to receive level 3 recognition by the NCQA Specialty Practice Recognition Program. While serving her community locally, she has devoted countless hours to improving care for all patients through her national policy work. In particular, she has helped develop and promote patient-centered care models and improvements in care coordination through the Medical Neighbor model. She is active in the Endocrine Society’s Transitions of Care Task Force, which is creating toolkits for transitioning young adults from pediatric to adult care, and chaired the Accurate Insulin Decisions (AID) collaborative project that developed shared decision-making tools to help physicians and patients in the initiation of mealtime insulin therapy. The AID program won the Gold in the ASAE Power of A Awards.
- Steven M. Anderson, PhD – Distinguished Educator Award. This annual award recognizes exceptional achievement as an educator in the discipline of endocrinology and metabolism. Anderson is the James C. Todd Professor of Experimental Pathology and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where he provides mentoring to numerous faculty members. Anderson has served as Program Director for the Biomedical Sciences program, the ‘umbrella’ admissions program for Ph.D. programs at the University of Colorado Denver, for ten years. He established the GEMS (Graduate Experience for Multicultural Scientists) Program in 1998, and has served as the catalyst for the start of many biomedical science careers by hosting and mentoring numerous summer students. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the Endocrine Society Minority Access Program, which has provided summer research experience for 82 undergraduates with Society members. Anderson has mentored eleven graduate students and ten postdoctoral fellows, and six of these trainees have received DOD Breast Cancer Research Fellowships.
- Dolores M. Shoback, MD – Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes distinguished service in the field of endocrinology. A tireless advocate for the field, Shoback is internationally known for her research on the pathogenesis and management of parathyroid and metabolic bone disorders and has trained numerous young investigators. She has served on the Endocrine Society’s leadership Council as well as the Publications, Development, Nominating, Public Communication, and Annual Meeting Steering Committees. She also served as Associate Editor of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Currently, she is chair of the Society’s Scientific and Educational Programs Committee and a member of the task force developing the Clinical Practice Guideline on Osteoporosis in Women. Shoback is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical School in San Francisco, CA and a Staff Physician in the Endocrine Research Unit at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
- Steven K. Grinspoon, MD – Gerald D. Aurbach Award for Outstanding Translational Research. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to research that accelerate the transition of scientific discoveries into clinical applications. Grinspoon is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of the MGH Program in Nutritional Metabolism, Co-Director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard Medical School and prior Clinical Director of the Neuroendocrine Clinical Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. His longstanding focus has been to understand the neuroendocrine regulation of body composition in obesity, specifically as it relates to the growth hormone axis. Grinspoon was among the early investigators to study the cause and clinical ramifications of lipodystrophy in people with HIV, and he has led the field in improving understanding of the role of growth hormone in modulating body compartments in generalized obesity.
- Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD – Roy O. Greep Award for Outstanding Research. This annual award recognizes meritorious contributions to research in endocrinology. Karsenty has advanced the understanding of the endocrinology of bone by unraveling a transcriptional framework governing skeletal development and function. His work explored the hypothesis that there is a coordinated control of bone mass, energy metabolism and reproduction. In testing his hypothesis, he revealed the existence of a central control of bone mass and that bone is an endocrine organ regulating through osteocalcin, glucose homeostasis, male fertility and cognition. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University in New York, NY.
- Richard A. Heyman, PhD – Outstanding Innovation Award. Established in 2013, this new award recognizes endocrinologists who have demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurship to further endocrine research or practice in support of the field of endocrinology, patients, and society at large. For the past 20 years, Heyman has been involved in the discovery and development of new investigational drugs and has built teams that brought multiple compounds into human clinical trials. His recent work focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of hormone-resistant cancer. He led companies that developed revolutionary treatments for castration-resistant prostate cancer and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Heyman was President and CEO of Seragon Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego, CA-based biotech company he cofounded in 2013, until its sale to the Roche Group. He is currently Executive Chairman and co-founder of Metacrine Inc., a biotech company focusing on developing therapeutics for the treatment of metabolic disorders including diabetes and NASH/fatty liver disease.
- Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH – International Excellence in Endocrinology Award. This award is presented to an endocrinologist who lives outside the United States and has made exceptional contributions to the field in geographic areas with underdeveloped resources for hormone health research, education, clinical practice or administration. An expert in bone and mineral metabolism, El-Hajj Fuleihan founded the American University of Beirut’s Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, the first of its kind in Lebanon and the region, and still serves as its director. She was involved in the development and dissemination of national and international clinical guidelines on osteoporosis and densitometry, the creation of the National Lebanese Task Force for Metabolic Bone Disorders, and the development of the national online Fracture Risk Assessment FRAX calculator based on Lebanese Ministry of Health data. She founded the university’s Human Research Protection Program, and the Clinical Research Institute for the School of Medicine, when she served as first Associate Dean for Clinical Research 2009-2010. She is PI/PD of the NIH-funded Scholars in Health Research Program, a program that provides a summer certificate in quantitative methods and master degree in health research.
- Anthony R. Means, PhD – Outstanding Leadership in Endocrinology Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding leadership in fundamental or clinical endocrinology. Known for his work on calcium signaling, Means was awarded the Society’s 1998 Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2006 Goodman and Gilman Award in Pharmacology. He has mentored more than 200 students and fellows, many of whom have emerged as leaders in their respective fields. Means is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine and Co-Director Emeritus of the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice Chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Associate Director of the longstanding Baylor Center for Population Research and Reproductive Biology at the Baylor College of Medicine. A past President of the Endocrine Society, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Endocrinology and as a member of the Society’s leadership Council.
- Nanette Santoro, MD – Outstanding Mentor Award. This annual award recognizes a career commitment to mentoring and a significant positive impact on mentees’ education and career. Santoro is Professor and E. Stewart Taylor Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado at Denver. As a lifelong researcher, Dr. Santoro has utilized her passion, clinical acumen and scientific expertise in reproductive endocrinology to develop and spearhead the careers of many young investigators. An expert on infertility and ovarian aging, Santoro’s passion for the subject encouraged many of her fellows and mentees to pursue careers in academic medicine and research. She received the 2006 Mentor of the Year during her tenure at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and she has been involved in mentoring through several of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s (NICHD) career development programs.
- Leaders Raising Global Awareness of the Health Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals – Outstanding Public Service Award. This award recognizes the individuals who best demonstrate dedication to public awareness or public service in support of the field of endocrinology and the patients who suffer from endocrine disorders. This year, the Society is honoring a group of scientists who have led the way in educating policymakers and the public about the effects that chemicals found in household, personal care, industrial and agricultural products can have on hormones and health.
- Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, MD, PhD – Bourguignon is Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University Hospital Centre in Liège, Belgium. He also leads the Neuroendocrinology Unit at the GIGA Neurosciences centre and chairs the Institute of training and research in higher education at the University of Liège. His main research topic is the neuroendocrine mechanism of sexual maturation. He was founding president of the Belgian Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology 25 years ago. He serves as co-chair of the Endocrine Society Global and European EDC Policy Task Forces.
- Andrea C. Gore, PhD – Gore is Professor and Vacek Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Texas at Austin, TX. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the basic science journal Endocrinology. Gore is internationally recognized for her work on the neural control of reproduction across the life cycle and the effects of environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on the developing brain. She has published over 120 articles and four books. Gore is the lead author of the Endocrine Society’s upcoming Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals as well as the Society and IPEN’s introductory guide to endocrine-disrupting chemicals for policymakers and public interest organizations.
- John P. Myers, PhD – Myers is founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Charlottesville, VA.-based Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to increase public understanding of the scientific links between environmental factors and human health. Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, Myers wrote Our Stolen Future, a book that explores the scientific basis of concern for how endocrine disrupting contaminants in the environment threaten fetal development. Over the past decade he has spearheaded a series of multi-author papers highlighting scientific weaknesses in how chemical regulations approach endocrine disrupting compounds. Myers is now actively involved in primary research on the impacts of endocrine disruption on human health. He has served as board chair of the Science Communication Network since its founding in 2002.
- R. Thomas Zoeller, PhD – Zoeller is Professor of the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studies thyroid hormone action on brain development and environmental disruption of thyroid hormone action. Zoeller is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Advisory Group on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and he serves as co-chair with Dr. Pr. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon of the Endocrine Society Global and European EDC Policy Task Forces. The goal of this work has been to provide scientific expertise on endocrine systems to the broad community of stakeholders including regulators, industries, public health NGOs and the public.
- David S. Cooper, MD – Outstanding Scholarly Physician Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of clinical endocrinology in academic settings. As Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, Cooper is internationally known in the world thyroid and endocrine community for his work on the treatment of Graves’ disease and subclinical thyroid disease, as well as various aspects of the diagnosis and management of thyroid cancer. He is the former Chairman of the Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Subspecialty Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He has served as a Contributing Editor at JAMA, Deputy Editor of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, and he is currently Endocrine Editor-in-Chief for Up-to-Date. He was the Chair of the American Thyroid Association Guideline Committee on Thyroid Nodules and Thyroid Cancer. Cooper is the Endocrine Board Review Chair for the Society’s Clinical Endocrinology Update Committee.
- Xiaole Shirley Liu, PhD – Richard E. Weitzman Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award. This annual award recognizes an exceptionally promising young clinical or basic investigator. Liu is the Co-Director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. She is a member of the National Human Genome Research Institute’s mod/ENCODE consortia, an affiliate of The Cancer Genome Atlas, and an associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Her research focuses on using genomics technologies and computational algorithms to improve the understanding of the factors involved in tumor development, progression, drug response and resistance. Combining her genomics and computational expertise, Liu’s pioneering work helped discover transcription factors, chromatin regulators, lncRNAs, and kinases and understand their functional mechanisms in the development and progression of endocrine cancers.
About Endocrine Society
Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.
The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses, and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
