The Louis and Artur Lucian Award in Cardiovascular Diseases at McGill University

Abstract

Philanthropy is often the life blood of academic institutions. Perhaps one of the most important and lasting contributions an individual can make takes the form of a university endowment. Dr Ronald V. Christie, Chief of the Department of Medicine and, subsequently Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University (1964–1972), met Dame Olga Leibovici, a wonderful philanthropist. After long discussion, she bestowed in her will in 1965, the sum of US $2 million to McGill University to establish the Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases. Mme Leibovici wanted to honor and remember her brothers, Louis and Artur (Ing.), both engineers (ingenieurs, in French); their ashes are preserved in the columbarium of the Cimetiere Pere Lachaise in Paris, France. The award provisions were put in place after she died in 1974. It fell to Dr Christie’s successor, Dr Patrick Cronin, Dean (1972–1977) to bestow the first Lucian Award of $50 000 Canadian to Drs Nicolae Simionescu, MD, and Maya Simionescu, PhD, of Bucharest and Yale University, for their outstanding work on cellular biology and atherosclerosis in 1978. The terms of her will stated that: “…Seventy percent of the income fund will obligatorily be used to create an award named ‘Louis and Artur Lucian (certified Engineers)’ awarded annually by a jury nominated by the University for the best work published in the past year anywhere in the world RELATED TO DISEASES OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM” (Figure). Furthermore, “The Awardees will be scrupulously selected according to merit from any country, without regard to race, religion or nationality. The Jury has the right to share this award between two or more recipients or to defer giving the Award the next year or even two if judged appropriate.” Figure. Terms of the will bestowing the Lucian Award. Excerpt from the will of …