2014 Lucian Award: Jeffrey Robbins.

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The 37th Louis and Artur Lucian Award for research in circulatory disease has been presented to Jeffrey Robbins, PhD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Robbins is being honored for 20 continuous years of exceptional cardiovascular research, bolstered by his openness in sharing his materials and findings. Since its beginnings with a $2 million bequest to McGill University in 1965, the Lucian Award has recognized the contributions of active investigators or teams whose work has already had a significant effect on the understanding of cardiovascular disease (Table). In her will, Olga Leibovici established the award to honor her brothers, both engineers, who had died prematurely. The $60 000 CAN prize, the largest given in any biomedical field in Canada, was first awarded in 1978. The Lucian Award places no restrictions on the nationality of recipients, and scientists working in 7 countries have received the honor. The McGill University community and awardees benefit from collaborations that are established or furthered during the 1 or 2 weeks each winner spends at McGill. View this table: Table 1. Previous Recipients of the Lucian Award “Through careful management, this single philanthropic donation from the 1960s has created an incredible legacy that just keeps on giving, and that is something that we will never forget and will protect for the future,” said Jacques Genest, MD, FRCP(C), Professor, Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, current Chair of the Lucian Selection Committee, and Novartis Chair in Medicine, McGill University. Recipients are selected by a volunteer committee of scientists, including many former awardees (see Box, Lucian Award Selection Committee), and each year about 15 top-notch applications make it to the last round. “Robbins has over 20 years of continuous stellar work and his career has led to many unexpected firsts in our understanding of cardiac disease. But what made our decision unanimous was …