Congratulations!

IUIS and its Gender Equity Committee (GEC) are pleased to announce Dr. Diane Mathis as the inaugural winner of the Menarini Prize for Outstanding Woman Immunologist (First Edition of IUIS EXCELL Award). Dr.Mathis is currently Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology and Morton Grove-Rasmussen Chair of Immunohematology at Harvard Medical School.

Established by GEC in 2020, this is the first IUIS award that recognizes outstanding research accomplishments of women immunologists. It is generously supported by the Menarini Group, an Italian pharmaceutical company founded in 1886 in Naples and currently headquartered in Florence. The Menarini Group operates in 140 countries around the world with its 18 manufacturing sites producing numerous drugs including monoclonal antibodies, for the treatment of pathologies in cardiology, oncology, pneumology and inflammation.

To select the winner, the international selection committee of 11 outstanding immunologists reviewed 23 nominations from a nominating committee of over 100 immunologists. Names of three finalists were forwarded to the IUIS Executive Committee for final selection. The USD 40,000 prize will be awarded at the IUIS 2023 Congress in Cape Town in a special ceremony on Friday, December 1st at 5.45pm (Auditorium 1), after which Dr. Mathis will give a Keynote Lecture that will be followed by a GEC networking reception. 

Overview of Scientific Achievements

Dr. Mathis obtained a PhD from the University of Rochester and performed postdoctoral studies at the Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Eucaryotes in Strasbourg, France and at Stanford University Medical Center. She returned to Strasbourg at the end of 1983, establishing a laboratory at the LGME [later the Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculare et Cellulaire (IGBMC)] in conjunction with Dr. Christophe Benoist. The lab moved to the Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston in 1999. Through 2008, Dr. Mathis was a Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Associate Research Director and Head of the Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics at Joslin.

Dr. Mathis is currently a Professor in the Department of Immunology at Harvard Medical School, and holder of the Morton Grove-Rasmussen Chair in Immunohematology. She is also an Associate Faculty Member of the Broad Institute. She presently serves on Advisory Boards of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Genentech, Pfizer and Amgen (amongst others) and of several research institutes worldwide.

Her lab works in the fields of T cell differentiation, autoimmunity and inflammation. She has trained over 150 students and postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Mathis was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2003, the German Academy in 2007, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. She received the FASEB Excellence in Science Award in 2016.

Dr. Mathis is also an active member of the Committee on Immunology at Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute, the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

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On the occasion of the Day of Immunology on 29th April, IUIS and its Gender Equity Committee (GEC) proudly announce the “Menarini Prize for Outstanding Woman Immunologist” established thanks to the forward-looking vision and generous support of the Menarini Group.

The USD 40,000 prize will be awarded for the first time at the 18th International Congress of Immunology (IUIS 2023) in Cape Town, South Africa and at future IUIS congresses thereafter. This award is the first and only IUIS prize that specifically recognizes women immunologists and their outstanding research accomplishments. Rules for nominations and selection of awardees are described below.

Rules for Nomination and Selection of Winners

The IUIS Gender Equity Committee (GEC) has formed a Nomination Committee (NC) composed of 101 outstanding immunologists. The IUIS commitment to equality and diversity across the divides of race, age, national origin or social status is reflected to the extent possible in the composition of the NC.

Each member of the NC is responsible for collecting one nomination consisting of the following:

• A nomination letter 
• CV of the nominee
• List of up to ten publications 
• One page summary of the nominee’s research accomplishments 

Female members of the NC may self-nominate, in which case they must submit two letters of support for their nomination from two other members of the Nomination Committee.

The Selection Committee (SC) composed of 12 outstanding immunologists, including Past Chair of the GEC Committee, is formed for a three-year term (current term is 2020-2023). Members of the SC are collectively responsible for selecting three candidates from the nominations received. The GEC Committee and the IUIS President will identify the winner from the shortlist.

The deadline for submission of the nominations has been postponed to 1st January, 2023 due to the change of the date of the 18th International Congress of Immunology to December 2023.

The Nomination should be sent to info@iuis.org and paola.castagnoli@gmail.com. 

Thank you for your support in advertising this award within your Society of Immunology.

List of the Nomination Committee members of the Menarini Prize for Outstanding Woman Immunologist

Number	First Name	Family Name	Country
1	Abbul	Abbas	USA
2	Ann	Ager	UK
3	Rafi	Ahmed	USA
4	Arne	Akbar	UK
5	Cezmi	Akdis	Switzerland
6	Fred	Alt	USA
7	Ido	Amit	Israel
8	David	Baltimore	USA
9	Jacques	Banchereau	USA
10	Mohamed R.	Barbouche	Tunisia
11	Manoel	Barral Netto	Brasil
12	Shashi	Baruah	India
13	Yehudit	Bergman	Israel
14	Gail	Bishop	USA
15	Meinrad	Busslinger	Austria
16	Harvey	Cantor	USA
17	Xuetao	Cao	China
18	Jean Laurent	Casanova	USA
19	Tinatin	Chikovani	Georgia
20	Max	Cooper	USA
21	Jayne	Danska	Canada
22	Jolanda	de Vries	Netherlands
23	James	di Santo	France
24	Anna	Erdei	Hungary
25	Barbara	Fazekas	Australia
26	Carl	Figdor	Netherlands
27	Richard	Flavell	USA
28	JoAnne	Flynn	USA
29	Wolf H.	Fridman	France
30	Ron	Germain	USA
31	Clive	Gray	South Africa
32	Deniz	Günnur	Turkey
33	Mayda	Gursel	Turkey
34	Muzlifah	Haniffa	UK
35	Adrian	Hayday	UK
36	Jules	Hoffmann	France
37	Michele	Hogan	USA
38	Akiko	Iwasaki	USA
39	Marc	Jenkins	USA
40	Carl	June	USA
41	Steffen	Jung	Israel
42	Dieter	Kabelitz	Germany
43	Jorge	Kalil	Brazil
44	Klaas	Kare	Sweden
45	Stefan	Kaufman	Germany
46	Anne	Kelso	Australia
47	Rosalyn	Kemp	New Zealand
48	Rolf	Kiesling	Sweden
49	Philippe	Kourilsky	France
50	Guido	Kroemer	France
51	Vijay	Kuchroo	USA
52	Lewis	Lanier	USA
53	Eddy	Liew	UK
54	Franco	Locatelli	Italy
55	Giovanna	Lombardi	UK
56	Virginia	M. Pascual	USA
57	Alberto	Mantovani	Italy
58	Philippa	Marrack	USA
59	Maria	Masucci	Sweden
60	Diane	Mathis	USA
61	Andrew	McMichael	UK
62	Reina	Mebius	Netherlands
63	Ira	Mellman	USA
64	Miriam	Merad	USA
65	Seppo	Meri	Finland
66	Henry	Mwandumba	Malawi
67	Sergei	Nedospasov	Russia
68	Jacques	Neefjes	Netherlands
69	Mihai	Netea	Netherlands
70	Luigi D	Notarangelo	USA
71	Michel	Nussenzweig	USA
72	Lucy	Ochola	Kenia
73	Hanne	Ostergaard	Canada
74	Hidde	Ploegh	USA
75	Fiona	Powrie	UK
76	Gabriel	Rabinovich	Argentina
77	Andreas	Radbruch	Germany
78	Rino	Rappuoli	Italy
79	Caetano	Reis e Sousa	UK
80	Claude Agnes	Reynaud	France
81	Franca	Ronchese	New Zealand
82	Alexander	Rudensky	USA
83	Shimon	Sakaguchi	Japan
84	Francisco	Sánchez-Madrid	Spain
85	Angela	Santoni	Italy
86	Leopoldo	Santos Argumedo	Mexico
87	Reinhold	Schmidt	Germany
88	Alessandro	Sette	USA
89	Anna Katja	Simon	UK
90	Ljiljana	Sofronic	Serbia
91	Tim	Sparwasser	Germany
92	Brigitta	Stockinger	UK
93	Hannes	Stockinger	UK
94	Zhigang	Tian	China
95	Rudolf	Valenta	Austria
96	Rene	van Lier	Netherlands
97	Ulrich	von Andrian	USA
98	Arthur	Weiss	USA
99	Ursula	Wiedermann	Austria
100	Jonathan	Yewdell	USA
101	Laurence	Zitvogel	France