The AASLD Distinguished Achievement Award is given to an individual in honor of his or her sustained scientific contributions to the field of liver disease and the scientific foundations of hepatology. The award honors a sustained contribution rather than a single discovery or major achievement. The awardee need not be a member of AASLD and may be a non-scientist but the contribution should be solidly in the area of liver disease, physiology, anatomy or pathology. Current AASLD Governing Board members are not eligible.
Presentation of the 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award to Lawrie W Powell, MD, PhD
Professor Powell is a graduate of The University of Queensland and subsequently trained with Sheila Sherlock, London, Kurt Isselbacher at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Neils Tygstrup at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen.
In collaboration with Professors June Halliday and Graham Cooksley, Professor Powell established an internationally recognised liver research group in Brisbane which made significant contributions to the understanding of iron metabolism and haemochromatosis.
In 1990 Professor Powell was appointed Director of The Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Over the next ten years the Institute enlarged three-fold in size and research income.
He has received numerous awards including a Gold Medal from the Canadian Liver Foundation, the Marcel Simon Prize from the Société Francaise de Hémochromatose and a Centenary Medal from the Commonwealth of Australia. He was awarded Alumnus of the year for 1999 by the University of Queensland, Australia. His numerous named orations have included the 1998 Hans Popper Lecture to the International Association for the Study of the Liver.
Professor Powell is currently Director of Research at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, honorary Senior Principal Research Fellow of Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Professor Emeritus, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Distinguished Achievement Awardees
1986 Hyman J Zimmerman, MD
1989 Aron Rappaport, MD
1990 Rudi Schmid, MD
1991 Thomas E Starzl, MD
1993 Stanley E Bradley, MD and
Carl A Goresky, MD
1994 Irwin M Arias, MD
1995 Telfer B Reynolds, MD
1996 Irmin Sternlieb, MD
1997 Alan F Hofmann, MD
1998 James L Boyer, MD
1999 Francis V Chisari, MD
2000 Robert H Purcell, MD
2001 Jay H Hoofnagle, MD
2002 Roberto J Groszmann, MD
2003 Nicholas F LaRusso, MD
2004 D Montgomery Bissell, MD
2005 E Jenny Heathcote, MD
2006 Neil Kaplowitz, MD
2007 Juan Rodes, MD
2008 Lawrie W Powell, MD, PhD