PET patron wins prestigious award

Baroness Mary Warnock, patron of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), which publishes BioNews, is to be awarded a major international prize for her work in bioethics.

The Dan David Prize rewards research and achievements that have 'an outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social impact on our world'.

Given by the Dan David Foundation, headquartered at Tel Aviv University in Israel, there are three annual prizes of US$1 million each in categories stipulated by time: 'Past, Present and Future'.

Baroness Warnock wins an award in the 'Present' category, said an announcement by the foundation, 'for her leading role in the development of practical bioethics and specifically for her progressive and unparalleled contribution to the ethics of embryology and genetics and their ethical and philosophical implication, reproductive technologies, and disability studies'.

It added: 'Dame Mary helped to enhance the welfare of society by breaking the boundaries between academic and enacted ethics.'

This is the first time in the prize's 17-year history, that it has been awarded for bioethics. Baroness Warnock shares the 'Present' bioethics prize with Professor Ezekiel Emanuel at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, US, and Professor Jonathan Glover at King's College London, UK.

The prizewinners for the 'Future' category in 2018 are awarded in the field of personalised medicine and include Professor Mary-Claire King at the University of Washington in Seattle for her 'game-changing discovery' of the BRCA1 gene for breast and ovarian cancer. The 'Past' category this year honours experts in the field of history of science.

The award ceremony will take place in May at the University of Tel Aviv.