PKD Research Award Established
To memorialize his mother, who suffered from PKD, and to stimulate advancements in PKD research, Mr. Thomas Kaplan generously donated funds to the PKD Foundation to create the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for the Advancement in Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease. Mr. Kaplan’s vision was to provide an incentive to have more researchers get involved in researching new therapies and an eventual cure for PKD. The prize is a joint venture between the PKD Foundation and the International Society of Nephrology. PKD experts from both organizations will judge nominations. The $50,000 cash prize will be awarded every other year beginning in 2003 and will be presented at ISN World Congresses of Nephrology. The $50,000 Kaplan International Prize for PKD... will be arguably the largest cash prize for a medial specialty in the world. (For more information regarding this Prize, please visit the PKD Foundation web site at www.pkdcure.org.) Nomination guidelines are below.
The Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in
Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)
Nomination Guidelines:
The Lillian Jean Kaplan Prize for PKD Research inaugurates a new recognition for those who have increased our understanding and treatment of Polycystic Kidney Disease through basic or clinical
scientific research.
The Prize has been established by way of a generous pledge from Mr. Thomas Kaplan in honor of his late mother Lillian Jean Kaplan who died PKD disease complication in 2002.
Each Award consists of a prize of $50,000 (USD$$), a framed certificate with an
appropriate citation and a designated sculpture to clinicians and scientists who have made outstanding discoveries in basic science or who have made outstanding clinical contributions to the care of
individuals with PKD.
The Prize is to be used by the recipient(s) for personal use or for support of future work.
A joint Advisory Committee comprised of representatives of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the PKD Foundation will be responsible to recommend prize recipients.
Awards are made to residents of any country without restriction to gender, race, religion, creed or nationality.
Normally the Prize will be presented every 2 years at a Congress of the ISN.
The first Prize will be given jointly by the ISN/PKD Foundation in 2003 at a World Congress of Nephrology held by the International Society of Nephrology in Berlin.
- Nomination letters should describe the key role of the nominee(s) in a biomedical advance relevant to PKD and should be accompanied by a full curriculum vitae with a complete mailing address and at least two supporting letters that detail a major discovery or sustained advance.
- The work of the nominee should be compared with that of others in the field, together with clearly articulated reasons why this work distinguishes the nominee's work from others in the same scientific topic.
If two are nominated to share the prize, the reasons for why the prize would be shared must be clearly delineated.
The nomination deadline for the first award is Feb 1, 2003 and nominations should be sent to:
Nathan W. Levin, M.D.
Advisory Committee Chair
Renal Research Institute
207 East 94th Street
New York, NY 10128 USA
A formal announcement of the awardee(s) will be coordinated between and by ISN/PKD Foundation and made 2-3 months prior to the ISN Congress.
The ISN and PKD Foundation are enormously grateful to Mr. Thomas Kaplan for his foresight and generosity in establishing a unique prize in Polycystic Kidney Disease, that will serve to
stimulate new knowledge leading to novel treatments and an eventual cure for Polycystic Kidney Disease.