BUSM’s Emelia Benjamin to Receive AHA’s Paul Dudley White Award

Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, professor of Medicine at BUSM, professor of Epidemiology at BU School of Public Health, co-Principal Investigator of the Framingham Heart Study and attending cardiologist at Boston Medical Center, has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious 2015 American Heart Association (AHA) Paul Dudley White Award.

The award, named in honor of one of Boston’s most revered cardiologists, Dr. Paul Dudley White, a founding father of the AHA, is given annually to a Massachusetts physician who has made a distinguished contribution to the Association’s mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Benjamin will receive the award at the Boston AHA Heart Ball on May 2. Last year BUSM faculty member Dr. Gary Balady, received the award.

Benjamin is an associate editor for Circulation, and she also volunteers as vice chair of the Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics annual publication. She is a current member of the Council Operations and the Research committees, and past chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council, and the Genomics & Translational Biology, Epidemiology and Observational/Epidemiology Research Study Section. In 2012 and 2013 she received the AHA’s Women in Cardiology and Functional Genomics and Translational Biology national mentoring awards, respectively.

Benjamin focuses on cardiovascular genetic epidemiology, and has made major contributions in the areas of atrial fibrillation, inflammation, vascular function and echocardiography.