Council Awards
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2023 Council Awards.
The AHA Scientific Council Awards applaud the achievements of researchers, scientists, clinicians, nurses and allied health professionals, and provide opportunities for financial rewards, special presentations and funding to attend the AHA Scientific Sessions and other council-sponsored meetings. Hundreds of awards are offered each year to meet our members where they are in their career.
Named Lectures
Alexander S. Nadas Lecture
Angela Sharkey, MD, FAAP
Ancel Keys Memorial Lecture
George Howard, DrPH, FAHA
Charles T. Dotter Memorial Lecture
Constantino S. Pena, MD, FAHA, FSIR, FSCCT
Dickinson W. Richards Memorial Lecture
Evangelos Michelakis, MD, FAHA, FACC
Genomic and Precision Medicine and Epidemiology Mid-Career Research Award and Lecture
Nathan O. Stitziel, MD, PhD, FAHA
George E. Brown Memorial Lecture
Ronglih Liao, PhD, FAHA
George Lyman Duff Memorial Lecture
Ann Marie Schmidt, MD
James B. Herrick Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cardiology
Patrick T. O’Gara, MD, MACC, FAHA, FESC
Katharine A. Lembright Award and Lecture
Nancy Schmieder Redeker, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN
Kathleen A. Dracup Distinguished Lecture Exemplary Career in Mentoring Award
Cheryl R. Dennison Himmelfarb, PhD, RN, ANP, FAHA
Kenneth D. Bloch Memorial Lecture in Vascular Biology
Marlene Rabinovitch, MD, FAHA
Laennec Clinician-Educator Award & Lecture
Sharonne N. Hayes, MD, FAHA
Robert Levy Memorial Lecture
Vasan Ramachandran, MD, FAHA
Russell Ross Memorial Lecture in Vascular Biology
Lars Maegdefessel, MD, PhD
Sol Sherry Distinguished Lecture in Thrombosis
Joseph E. Italiano, Jr., PhD
Stroke Council Award & Lecture
Patrick D. Lyden, MD, FAHA
Thomas W. Smith Memorial Lecture
Joseph A. Hill, MD, PhD, FAHA
Distinguished Achievement Awards
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
Distinguished Achievement Award
Tom Aufderheide, MD, MS, FAHA
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
Distinguished Achievement Award in Thrombosis
Peter Tontonoz, MD, PhD
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
Distinguished Achievement Award
Jane E. Freedman, MD, FAHA
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
Distinguished Achievement Award
Judith S. Hochman, MD, FAHA
Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (CVRI)
Distinguished Achievement Award
Vincent B. Ho, MD, MBA, FAHA
Council on Epidemiology and Prevention (EPI)
Distinguished Achievement Award
Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA
Special Recognition Awards
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
Special Recognition Award in Thrombosis
A. Phillip Owens III, PhD, FAHA
Special Recognition Award in Arteriosclerosis
Marit Westerterp, PhD
Special Recognition Award in Vascular Biology
David Dichek, MD, FAHA
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
CVSN Clinical Article of the Year Award
John R. Blakeman, PhD, RN, PCCN-K
CVSN Excellence in Clinical Practice Award
Nancy A. Rudd, MS, BSN, PNP-AC/PC, APNP, FAHA
CVSN Marie Cowan Promising Early Career Investigator Award
Quin Denfeld, PhD, RN, FAHA
CVSN Mathy Mezey Excellence in Aging Award
Niloufar Niakosari Hadidi, PhD, APRN, ACNS-BC, FAHA
CVSN Research Article of the Year Award
Michele M. Pelter, RN, PhD, FAHA
CVSN Stroke Article of the Year Award
Sandy Middleton, RN, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
CVSA Surgery and Anesthesiology Mentoring Award
Duke E. Cameron, MD
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
Laennec Master Clinician Award
Bernard J. Gersh, MB, ChB, DPhil, FRCP, MACC, FAHA, PhD (Hon Causa)
Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award
Jacqueline Kreutzer, MD eline Kreutzer, MD
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
GPM Medal of Honor
Connie R. Bezzina, PhD
GPM Mentoring Award
Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, FAHA
Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR)
QCOR Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award
Lesley Curtis, PhD, FAHA
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
Outstanding Research Award in Pediatric Cardiology
Kenta Hirai, MD, PhD
Kurt Robert Schumacher, MD, MS
Yao Wu, PhD
Young Hearts Meritorious Achievement Award
Meryl S. Cohen, MD, MSEd, FAHA
Best Abstract Awards
3CPR Best Abstract Award Winner (Cardiopulmonary/ Critical Care)
Dr. med. Nils Kremer
CVSN Best Abstract Award
Brittany Butts, PhD, RN, FAHA
Early Career Abstract Awards
Quest Diagnostics and Steve Rusckowski Early Career Investigator Award for Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine Research
Sponsored by Quest Diagnostics Center of Excellence for Cardiometabolic Testing at Cleveland Heart Lab
Cinzia Monaco, MD
Jiwoo Lee, MS
Kershaw V. Patel, MD, MSCS
Arya Aminorroaya, MD, MPH
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
Elaine W. Raines Early Career Investigator Award
Maria Barrachina, PhD
Gopika SenthilKumar
Manasa K. Nayak, PhD
Tyler W. Benson, PhD
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Basic Science Research Prize for Early Career Investigators
Haobo Li, PhD
Oscar E. Reyes Gaido
Maria Cimini, PhD
Peiheng Gan, MBBS, PhD
Melvin L. Marcus Early Career Investigator Award in Cardiovascular Sciences
Markus Rottmann, PhD
Na Xu, PhD
Julian U. G. Wagner, PhD, MSc
Glynnis A. Garry, MD
Genki Ichihara, MD, PhD
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
Cournand and Comroe Early Career Investigator Award
Stuti Sunil Kumar Agarwal, PhD
Sarah-Eve Lemay, MSc
Ruaa Al-Qazazi, MB ChB, MSc
Yongneng Zhang, MD, PhD
Chen-Shan Julia Woodcock, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia Early Career Investigator Abstract Award
Dunpeng Cai, PhD
Dae-Young Kim, MD
Prabhvir Marway, MB BChir (Hons)
Bahadir Simsek, MD
Alejandro Suarez-Pierre, MD
Vivien Thomas Early Career Investigator Award
Debolina Banerjee, MD
Lamia Harik, MD
Amit Iyengar, MD, MSE
Aditya Sengupta, MD, MPH
Antonia van Kampen, MD, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
Martha N. Hill Early Career Investigator Award
Zequan Wang, PhD, RN
JungHee Kang, PhD, MPH, RN
Oluwabunmi Ogungbe, PhD, MPH, RN
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
Laennec Fellow in Training (FIT) Clinician Award
Giselle Alexandra Suero Abreu MD, PhD, MSc
Reynaldo H. Sanchez, MD
Sean P. Murphy, MBBCh
David E. Hamilton, MD
Qiao Joyce Han, MD
Samuel A. Levine Early Career Clinical Investigator Award
Jonathan Cunningham, MD, MPH
Zhehao Dai, MD, MPH
Kasra Nezamabadi, PhD
Aish Sinha, MBBS, MRCP
Lingyu Xu, MD, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (CVRI)
Melvin Judkins Early Career Clinical Investigator Award
Aldostefano Porcari, MD, FISC
Karin Pola, MD
Amine Amyar, PhD
Ebraham Alskaf, MD, MRCP
Sophia Swago
Council on Epidemiology and Prevention
Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award for Early Career Investigators
Andrew O. Agbaje, MD, MPH
Evangelos K. Oikonomou, MD, Dphil
Arunashis Sau, MBBS, PgCert, MRCP
Sarah Margaret Urbut, MD, PhD
Rosangela Hoshi, PhD
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
Genomic and Precision Medicine Early Career Investigator Award
Lu-Chen Weng, PhD
Matthew J. O’Neill
James Pirruccello, MD
Shaunak Sanjay Adkar, MD, PhD
Joel Rämö, MD, PhD
Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health
Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Early Career Investigator Award
Amrit Chowdhary, MBBS, MSc, MRCP, PhD
Katherine A. Collins, PhD
Emily Decicco, MD
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
Young Hearts Early Career Investigator Award
Lindsay M. Thomson, MD
Xin Tao Ye, MD
Junichi Saito, MD, PhD
Leonie Madelaine Kurzlechner
Paola Cota Phelan, DO
Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD)
Jay D. Coffman Early Career Investigator Award
Li Lai, PhD
Victoria Thomas, MD
Patrick Heindel, MD, MPH
Neela Thangada, MD
Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR)
QCOR Early Career Investigator Abstract Award
Lucas X. Marinacci, MD
Amrita Mukhopadhyay, MD, MS
Mirza S. Khan, MD, MS
Arash A. Nargesi, MD, MPH
