Four members of the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Division of Lung Disease, Airway Biology and Disease Branch have been awarded the inaugural John W. Walsh Award for Advocacy on Behalf of COPD. According to a press release from the COPD Foundation, the award is given “on behalf of the COPD Conferences (UK and USA) that are committed to recognizing individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).”
The four honorees are:
- Thomas Croxton, Ph.D., M.D.
- James Kiley, Ph.D.
- Antonello Punturieri, M.D., Ph.D.
- Lisa Postow, Ph.D.
The award was handed out at the COPD10usa conference in Chicago on Saturday, July 29th. Drs. Croxton, Kiley, Punturieri, and Postow were honored for their role in developing the groundbreaking National COPD Action Plan and their “consistent advocacy over many years that advanced the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of COPD including support of COPD patients, their families and communities”.
The award was created in memory of John W. Walsh, the founder of the COPD Foundationa and the Alpha-1 Foundation. Recipients of the award will be inducted into the COPD Hall of Fame.