Abstract
Introduction
The ISBER Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking Award is sponsored for the first time this year by Taylor-Wharton, and recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of biobanking. Past awardees include Dr. Kurt Zatloukal and Dr. Carolyn Compton. ISBER is proud to announce the addition of Dr. Robert Hewitt to this distinguished list.
The second award is the ISBER Distinguished Leadership & Service Award. This award is designed to honor ISBER members who have demonstrated exceptional leadership to further the mission and goals of the Society and/or significant, long-standing contributions to the Society. Past awardees include Elaine Gunter, Phil Baird, and Dr. Robert Hewitt. ISBER is proud to announce the addition of Ms. Marianna Bledsoe to this distinguished list.
Below are biosketches for the 2012 ISBER Awardees, Dr. Hewitt and Ms. Bledsoe.
ISBER Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking Award Sponsored by Taylor-Wharton
Robert Hewitt, Ph.D., received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Immunology and Microbiology from the University of London in 1980, a medical degree (MBBS) from the University of London in 1983, and a Ph.D. in virology from the University of Glasgow in 1988. He worked in the Department of Histopathology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham from 1988–1994, studied in the laboratory of Lance Liotta at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, from 1994–1998, then moved back to London (1998–2000) Hammersmith Hospital Imperial College School of Medicine, where he worked with Gordon Stamp and El-Nasir Lalani to establish the Human Biomaterials Resource Centre (HBRC), a biobank with collaborative links to various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He followed that with a year's stay in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he established a new biobank at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. Dr. Hewitt then moved to Singapore, where from 2002 to 2009 he was a Senior Scientist and established a new tissue repository that became a leading participant in the Singapore Tissue Network (STN). Dr. Hewitt also established a closely linked hospital-based cancer registry running on North American guidelines (NAACCR) and obtained multiple grants from the Singapore Cancer Syndicate (SCS). He established collaborations with a number of biotechnology companies and hosted the 2007 ISBER annual meeting in Singapore, which was the first meeting of the Society in Asia. Dr. Hewitt was elected ISBER President for 2008–2009. He was the first non-US ISBER president. During his year as President he created several new committees, promoted creation of the Asian affiliation, and ensured that ISBER joined the Forum for International Biobanking Organizations (FIBO), which he co-founded. He is the European Editor of Biopreservation and Biobanking (the official Journal of ISBER) and serves on several ISBER committees. Last but not least, during the last 2 years he formed the European, Middle-Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB), for which he serves as Executive Officer and which has become an official Chapter of ISBER.
ISBER Distinguished Leadership & Service Award
Marianna J. Bledsoe, M.A., is Senior Program Manager for Biorepositories and Biobanking at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Research and Development. She provides strategic direction and oversight of the VA's tissue banking activities. Prior to this position, she was Deputy Associate Director of the Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination Program in the Office of Science Policy, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH). She served as ISBER President from 2007–2008 and established the Special Service Awards for ISBER. She represented ISBER as a founding member of FIBO and has served on numerous ISBER committees. She continues to offer her leadership, strong voice, and insights in the realm of biobanking. She was strategically involved in the 2011 ISBER annual meeting program for Governance Models to Ensure Public Benefit and organized the Return of Research Results: Stakeholder session. She was a key speaker for the University of Minnesota's Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment, and Life Sciences, “Should We Return Research Results and Incidental Findings from Genomic Biobanks and Archives?,” which immediately followed the ISBER meeting. In addition, in 2011 she was instrumental in recognizing the need for a forum to provide ISBER's membership with a voice in the changing scientific policies affecting biobanking and biospecimen use across the globe. As a result, the ISBER Council created the Science Policy committee in 2011 with global ISBER member representation.