2018 Dan David Prize Laureates Announced
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
The Dan David Prize is an international prize which annually awards three prizes of US$ 1 million each for outstanding scientific, technological, cultural, and social achievements having an impact on our world. Each year fields are chosen within the three Time Dimensions – Past, Present, and Future.
THE LAUREATES ARE |
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PROF. LORRAINE DASTONMax Planck Institute for the History of Science For her groundbreaking historical work on the “Ideals and Practices of Rationality”, as she has termed the basic categories of scientific investigation and accomplishment. Her meticulous historical studies of “reason,” “proof,” “fact,” “observation,” “scientific object,” “data”, and even “objectivity” itself, masterfully demonstrate how such seemingly universal concepts have changed dramatically since the seventeenth century. |
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PROF. EVELYN FOX KELLERMassachusetts Institute of Technology For her pioneering work in science and gender that has transformed our views of the history of science. Fox Keller has examined particularly the role of language in genetics and molecular biology, interrogating the historical legacy embedded in scientific language. Her remarkable insight into the relation between feminism and science reveals the obstacles to the pursuit of science by women and envisions what a gender-free science might look like. |
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PROF. SIMON SCHAFFERUniversity of Cambridge For the way his work has transformed our understanding of science in history by consistently targeting key issues, and probing the limits of current debate. Spanning a remarkable chronological and geographical range, from seventeenth to the twentieth century, and from London and Beijing to Parramatta and Paris, Simon Schaffer’s impressive body of work demonstrates how experiment can no longer be seen as the mere testing of theories, but is located in witnessing, trust and acquired skill. His work exposes how major junctures in the history of science are embedded in the localities of commercial exchange, political negotiation, and the activities of everyday life. |
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PROF. EZEKIEL EMANUELUniversity of Pennsylvania For advancing the field of bioethics by combining his skills as a physician, policymaker, and scholar. Prof. Emanuel is a pioneer in the field of end-of life care and research ethics. He emphasized that patients who want euthanasia of assisted suicide do not do so because of pain but because of psychological distress, depression and hopelessness. His analysis of the physician patient relationship is a landmark widely taught throughout the world and used to educate medical students. |
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PROF. JONATHAN GLOVERKings College London For his seminal contributions to the theoretical aspects of bioethics. For setting the research agenda in many topics and in particular in Human Enhancement and Reproductive Ethics. His original research spans diverse topics such as human nature, war and the Holocaust, genetic ethics, neuroethics, and psychiatric issues. The originality of his thought is marked by the role he plays in shaping the debates others will follow. |
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BARONESS MARY WARNOCKLondon, United Kingdom For her leading role in the development of practical bioethics and specifically for her progressive and unparalleled contribution to the ethics of embryology and genetics and their ethical and philosophical implication, reproductive technologies, and disability studies. Dame Mary helped to enhance the welfare of society by breaking the boundaries between academic and enacted ethics. |
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PROF. CARLO CROCEOhio State University For pioneering the unraveling of the molecular basis of a number of lymphoma and leukemia cancers. Mastering both cytogenetics and molecular biology, he identified the role of major oncogenes as drivers of cancer development, progression and resistance to therapy. His studies also demonstrated the role of micro RNAs in tumor pathogenesis. His numerous findings in cancer enable precise cancer diagnosis, individualized targeting of therapy and the development of novel rationally designed anti-cancer drugs. |
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PROF. MARY-CLAIRE KINGUniversity of Washington For being a world leader in Medical Genetics with major contributions to the study of the molecular basis of several diseases. Her seminal finding was the demonstration of a genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer resulting from mutations in a single gene, the BRCA1 gene. This game changing discovery contributes to the understanding of hereditary cancer predisposition and revolutionized clinical approaches for cancer predisposition screening, individualized interventions and tailoring of rational therapy. |
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PROF. BERT VOGELSTEINJohns Hopkins School of Medicine For his seminal contributions to the understanding of cancer genetics and genomics. His pioneering studies on colon cancer demonstrated that cancer results from sequential genetic and epigenetic alterations. He was involved in the identification and characterization of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes and developed and applied high throughput methodologies for concomitant analysis of thousands of genes and whole genomes. Such approaches paved the way to early diagnosis, precise characterization and tailoring of individualized therapy of cancer. |
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