2023 Bernard Lo, MD Award in Bioethics Request for Nominations

January 25, 2023

The Greenwall Foundation invites nominations for the 2023 Bernard Lo, MD Award in Bioethics (Lo Award), a $25,000 prize that is given annually to recognize significant contributions to bioethics. This Award honors Dr. Lo’s service to The Greenwall Foundation as its President & CEO (2012-2020) and founding Director of the Faculty Scholars Program.

The Lo Award will recognize one area of accomplishment in bioethics each year. The 2023 Lo Award will be presented for forging connections across division through bioethics. Such division may derive from differences in perspective, politics, power, community, identity, or discipline (to name only some examples). In an increasingly polarized society, bioethics can serve as a model for articulating and navigating differing values and finding shared resolutions to difficult problems. This year’s Award will be given to a recipient or recipients who have leveraged bioethics to bridge divides between groups or individuals. A strong preference will be given to nominees who have collaborated – with each other or others – to lessen division and improve policy or practice.

Nominees may be individuals, organizations that are US 501(c)(3) public charities, and/or collaborative teams. The Foundation encourages nominees from academic, non-profit, government, industry, and other sectors.

For illustrative purposes, examples of forging connections across division through bioethics may include, but are not limited to:

• Collaboration between those with opposing views on reproductive health or end-of-life issues to formulate productive policy or practice recommendations and/or to translate such recommendations into action
• Professional organizations that have successfully incorporated a full spectrum of perspectives in drafting inclusive statements and policies
• Collaboration between patient advocacy groups and researchers or regulators to develop or provide access to needed therapies or interventions
• Biomedical experts, public health experts, and government officials collaborating with vaccine-hesitant health care workers to promote the protection of vulnerable patients
• Individuals or organizations that have developed community-based health programs that overcome the experienced mistrust and discrimination in those communities regarding health institutions.

Nominations are due by Monday, March 20, 2023 at 11:59pm ET.

Award Criteria

The Lo Award Committee will consider:

• The centrality of bioethics to the work described
• The nominee’s role in the conception and implementation of the work
• The intractability of the divisions bridged, and novelty of the approach taken
• The strength of collaborative relationships, as demonstrated, for example, through inclusion of diverse perspectives, respectful discourse, consensus building, and mutual benefit
• The nominee’s commitment to collaboration, as demonstrated, for example, through duration of collaborative efforts, involvement in different collaborative efforts, and investment of time and effort
• Whether the nominee’s work has lessened division and improved policy or practice
• Steps to share knowledge or lessons learned more widely to promote broader success

Nominations are due by 11:59pm ET on Monday, March 20, 2023. For more information on the Lo Award, this year’s criteria, and how to submit a nomination, visit the Request for Nominations page on our website.

Please direct any questions about the Award to Kyle Ruempler at [email protected].