Research!America to Recognize Dr. Paul Offit for his Unparalleled Efforts in Medical and Science Research Advocacy

Paul A. Offit, MD, an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and director of the Vaccine Education Center (VEC) at CHOP, as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Chair of Vaccinology in the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the distinguished Geoffrey Beene Foundation Builders of Science Award from Research!America. The award recognizes those who have provided inspiration and determination in building an outstanding home for research.

Offit will receive the award at the Research!America advocacy awards event on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

“We are thrilled to recognize these outstanding 2020 honorees who, through their commitment to scientific research, have contributed to scientific education and communication, scientific discovery, and advocacy for  improved care and funding to accelerate research,” said Mary Woolley, president and CEO, Research!America.

“We’re living at a time that it takes great determination to defend vaccine science: the questions about vaccines have been asked and answered repeatedly, backed by evidence-based medicine,” said Offit. “There are those of us who, like me, grew up with polio, mumps and measles – and saw the ravages of those diseases in children. Sadly, we’re seeing children succumb to these vaccine preventable diseases all over again. It is incumbent on all of us to know the truth, defend the truth and communicate the truth about vaccines: they save lives.”

Dr. Offit was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2011, and to American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. In 2018, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Dr. Offit has published more than 160 papers in medical and scientific journals and is the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Offit has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the CDC, and is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research.

Dr. Offit is one of three co-recipients of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Builders of Science Award. Read more about the award.

Read an interview of Dr. Offit talking about communicating science.