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The Lita Annenberg Hazen Award and Fellowship Grant was established in 1978 to encourage and reward excellence in clinical research. It was created from a gift from Lita A. Hazen (1909 - 1994). Mrs. Hazen was a philanthropist and Mount Sinai trustee whose family was involved with Mount Sinai since the founding of the School of Medicine. The $100,000 award was presented annually to a physician and a research fellow to use in the continuation of their investigative work. The award lost Hazen sponsorship and was terminated in 1987. Between the years of 1978 - 1987, thirteen doctors (listed below) received the $100,000 prize, which was shared equally with the research fellow of their choice. The winners were: Jesse Roth - 1979; Henry G. Kunkel - 1980; Aaron B. Lerner - 1981; Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein - 1982; Robert J. Lefkowitz - 1983; Yuet Wai Kan - 1984; Hugh O'Neill McDevitt - 1985; and Jean D. Wilson - 1986.
The Hazen Award drew nominations for doctors from various medical specialties around the world. The award attracted noteworthy candidates with distinguished careers in clinical research. Two Hazen Award winners, Drs. Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, went on to jointly win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1985 "for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism."
Award winners were determined by evaluation by an Award Committee, which judged each nominee's work based on scientific significance and peer determined quality of research. The Award Committee was comprised of physicians representing various medical specialties. The members met semi-annually to discuss, score and rank nominees to determine the winner. Members were volunteers, typically appointed for three-year terms. Winners received their prize at a presentation event held in New York City with a symposium at Mount Sinai.
The Appointment Committee was comprised of physician volunteers who met semi-annually to identify physicians to invite to participate on the Award Committee. Candidates for the Award Committee were selected based upon their expertise in a particular medical specialty. There was one permanent staff member, Myrna Turkewitz.
The Administrative series contains documents pertaining to the various aspects of planning the awards events. This includes documentation of the Award and Appointment Committees' activities, memos and letters to the committee members, and event planning.
The Award Recipient series contains information about the winners. This includes nomination forms, supporting documents and correspondence between the winners and Mount Sinai administrators. This series also includes the winners' published peer-reviewed journal articles and research updates.
One strength of this collection is the descriptions of systems-based practice in clinical research, article clippings about and by the award winners. The administrative records also provide somewhat of a blueprint for launching and executing a major awards event.
The collection includes audio cassette recordings of the 1979, 1980, 1985 and 1986 award events. These cassettes have been added to the Mount Sinai Archives AV Collection and digitized to make them available for use. Note: the first of the two 1979 cassettes is physically damaged and could not be digitized.