Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh, vice president of Medical Affairs and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB), was selected by the nominating committee of the Arab American Medical Association (AAMA) - Houston Chapter to receive The Ben Qurrah Award for 2014.
The Ben Qurrah Award, one of the most prestigious awards given by the AAMA-Houston Chapter, is granted to scientists and physicians of Arab origin who have significantly contributed to their field. Two awardees are selected every two years; one from Houston and the other, either national or international, from outside Houston.
Sayegh was selected for this award based on his significant contributions to the fields of nephrology and transplantation. He is recognized as a world leader in transplantation, renal medicine and transplantation immunobiology research. With over 200 original articles published, a large number of reviews, editorials and book chapters and the editing of several books in nephrology and transplantation, Sayegh’s impact and contributions to his field are countless. His leadership allowed him to serve as council member and president (2000 - 2001) of the American Society of Transplantation (AST); chair of the transplant advisory board of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN); chair of the AST Program education and development committees; chair of the 2005 ASN Program committee and the chair of the program committee of the 2006 World Transplant Congress and the 2007 World Congress of Nephrology; co-chair of the steering committee of the NIH Immune Tolerance Network and member of the executive committee and chair of the steering committee of the NIH consortium, Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation (CTOT). Most recently, Dr. Sayegh was elected into Arab Business’ 2011 and 2012 Power 500 - World’s Most Influential Arabs for his contributions to the field of science.
Among the pioneering figures who have been presented the Ben Qurrah Award was Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Algerian world-renowned physician, former director of the National Institutes of Health (2002-2008) and former director of the MRI division and chair of the Russell H. Morgan department of radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins University, whose accomplishments included the establishment of a research program on widespread obesity, supporting the reduction of healthcare disparities and the creation of Neuroscience Blueprint to support neuroscience research at NIH. In 2009, AUB awarded Dr. Zerhouni an honorary doctorate in acknowledgment of his significant contributions to science.
Other awardees include renowned molecular geneticist AUBMC trustee and professor of pediatrics, neurology, neuroscience, and molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Huda Zoghbi whose work uncovered the genetic underpinnings of several neurological disorders and who has made invaluable contributions to the understanding of the genetic roots of deadly neurodegenerative disorders, and Dr. Daoud Hanania, internationally renowned Palestinian cardiovascular surgeon who had performed the first heart transplant in the Arab world at the King Hussein Medical Centre in Jordan in 1985 and the first kidney transplant in the Arab world in 1973.
This award is named after the prominent Arab scientist and physician Thabit Ibn Qurrah Marawan Al-Harrani from Harran, Mesopotamia, a well-versed scholar in the fields of Astronomy, Mathematics, translation and Medicine. Dr. Sayegh and Dr. Raymond Sawaya, chair of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine, awardees for 2014, will be presented their awards at AAMA’s biannual gala in Houston on February 22, 2014.
