Benjamin Receives AHA Population Science Award

The American Heart Association (AHA) awarded its Population Research Prize for 2016 to Emelia Benjamin, MD, ScM. She was recognized “for highly relevant research findings contributing to a fuller understanding of the epidemiology, genetic basis, risk factors and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, particularly inflammation, vascular function and atrial fibrillation.”

Benjamin, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and senior investigator at the Framingham Heart Study, received the prize during the opening of the AHA’s Scientific Sessions 2016 on Sunday, Nov. 13, in New Orleans.  AHA President Steven Houser, PhD, of Temple University in Philadelphia awarded the prize, a citation and $5,000 honorarium for outstanding achievement in population science.

Houser said Benjamin is a widely cited investigator who has co-authored 450 scientific reports spanning multiple areas of cardiovascular epidemiology in leading scientific journals. AHA’s president said she “is perhaps most noted for her contributions expanding knowledge of atrial fibrillation, its epidemiology, risk factors, genetic basis and prognosis.”

“It is evident that Dr. Benjamin’s investigative career has been remarkably successful and significant,” Houser said as he presented the AHA award.