ASIP Member, Dr. Elaine Jaffe, Receives FASEB Excellence in Science Award
April 5, 2023 — The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) today awarded Elaine S. Jaffe, MD, Distinguished Investigator at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), with the Excellence in Science Lifetime Achievement Award which showcases outstanding achievements of women in biological science.
Dr. Jaffe has received numerous awards over the course of her 50+ year career—too many to list here. Her recent awards include: the Inaugural Brooks Ragen Endowed Lectureship (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 2021), the Berard-Dorfman Founders Award (Society for Hematopathology, 2019), the Board’s Distinguished Pathologist Award (United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, 2019), Honorary Fellow of The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (2019), NCI Center for Cancer Research Federal Technology Transfer Award (2017, 2018, 2019), Arthur Purdy Stout Society President’s Award (2016), Philip Levine Award for Outstanding Research (American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2014), Henry M. Stratton Medal (American Society of Hematology, 2013), NIH Merit Award and NIH Director’s Award (awarded to the members of the Lymphoma Leukemia Molecular Profiling Project, 2010), NIH Director’s Merit Award for graduate medical education (2005 and many others). In 2008 she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Dr. Jaffe has received a number of awards from the ASIP, including the Gold-Headed Cane Award (conferred at the Experimental Biology 2022 meeting), the Rous-Whipple Award (2016), and the Chugai Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Scholarship (2008). Last year, Dr. Jaffe became the inaugural recipient of the James S. Ewing-Thelma B. Dunn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pathology in Cancer Research (2022), and was recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services with the DHHS Career Achievement Award (2022).
The citation associated with the DHHS Career Achievement Award reads: “Dr. Elaine S. Jaffe has changed the way in which the diagnosis of lymphoma is made on a worldwide basis—(1) revolutionizing the integration of traditional pathological methods with immunologic and genomic approaches; (2) harmonizing for the first time the diagnosis of lymphoma and leukemia internationally; and (3) describing multiple new disease entities that have resulted in changes to clinical practice and management for numerous patients.”
Recently ranked as the 16th best woman scientist in the U.S. and 24th best woman scientist in the world in an analysis conducted by Research.com, Jaffe’s work over the past 50 years has changed the way in which the diagnosis of lymphoma is made worldwide. She has single-handedly changed the practice of hematological cancers and her discoveries have impacted the lives of patients throughout the world. She is the final arbiter for challenging diagnostic problems submitted to her from around the world, personally reviewing more than 2,000 cases annually.