Research!America to Honor Walter Isaacson with Advocacy Award
Walter Isaacson, author, professor, executive, and television host (among other roles) will receive Research!America’s Isadore Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion for his commitment to bringing public attention to revolutionary figures in science and technology. This award is presented annually to individuals who work to effectively deliver medical or other health-related research advocacy messages to the public.
The 2022 Advocacy Awards program will be held virtually at 4 p.m. ET on March 16, 2022; registration is free and open to all.
“We are pleased to be able to honor Walter Isaacson for his incredible contributions to making scientists – and science – more accessible to the world,” said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America. “In opening a door for people of all backgrounds to learn more about the lives and work of people at the forefront of their fields, and by helping explain their work in his conversations and media appearances, his work exemplifies the spirit of the Rosenfeld Award.”
Isaacson has written about revolutionary figures in science and technology, including Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci. His most recent book, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, explores the biotech world and the science of gene editing, specifically focusing on Nobel Prize-winner Jennifer Doudna, the biochemist known for her discoveries in CRISPR gene editing, including the application of her team’s expertise to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Isaacson regularly appears in interviews in which he talks about the subjects of his work, and explains, in accessible terms, the focus of their research. Recently, he has regularly spoken about CRISPR and the benefits and moral and ethical implications of gene editing.
In addition to his writing work, Isaacson is a Professor of History at Tulane. He has been the editor of Time Magazine, the CEO and Chairman of CNN, and the CEO of the Aspen Institute. He is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City, a cohost of the PBS show Amanpour & Co., a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.”
He is chair emeritus of Teach for America. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held from 2009 to 2012.
Isaacson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the American Philosophical Society. He serves on the board of United Airlines, Halliburton Labs, the New Orleans City Planning Commission, the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Society of American Historians, and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
2022 Advocacy Awards
Now in its 26th year, Research!America’s annual Advocacy Awards program honors outstanding individuals and organizations in advocacy for medical, health, and scientific research.
The Isadore Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion is named in honor of Dr. Rosenfeld (1926 – 2018), Emeritus Director and a founding board member of Research!America, world-renowned cardiologist and author. As “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Rosenfeld influenced countless physicians to treat patients with empathy and compassion, and spoke out forcefully about the value of biomedical, prevention and other crucial research to patients, the public broadly and to public decision makers.
Research!America has previously-announced other 2022 Advocacy Award honorees: Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, will receive the John Edward Porter Legacy Award generously supported by Ann Lurie; France A. Córdova, PhD, will receive the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Builders of Science Award; Neal F. Lane, PhD, will receive the Herbert Pardes Family Award for National Leadership in Advocacy for Research; Jed Manocherian will receive the Gordon and Llura Gund Leadership Award; and the Alliance for Aging Research will receive the Paul G. Rogers Distinguished Organization Advocacy Award.
The suite of Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Awards generously supported by Johnson & Johnson honor the following: Matthew Meyers, Bill Novelli, and Vivian W. Pinn, MD, who will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Award; Christopher Murray, MD, DPhil, who will receive the Building the Foundation Award; Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, who will receive the Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award; Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV), which will receive the Rapid Translation Award.
In the coming days we will announce the honorees for the Edwin C. Whitehead Award for Medical Research Advocacy.
For a full list of 2022 awardees, and to register, visit www.researchamerica.org/advocacy_awards.
Contact Tim Haynes, Senior Director of Communications, at 571-482-2737 or thaynes@researchamerica.org with press inquiries.
About Research!America
Research!America is a non-profit medical and health research advocacy alliance which advocates for science, discovery, and innovation to achieve better health for all. Visit www.researchamerica.org.