ISPE currently presents annual student awards (including the Stanley Edlavitch Award) to the best student abstracts submitted to the annual meeting. We also award the Rothman Epidemiology Prize for the best paper published in Epidemiology and the ISPE-PDS Prize for the best paper published in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. I think that these awards serve the society well.

Many societies also present awards to honor the scientific achievements of established leaders in the field. For example, the American College of Epidemiology awards the Abraham Lilienfeld Award (http://www.acepidemiology2.org/cttes/awards/callforLilienfeldnominations.asp), and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research awards the Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award (http://www.ispor.org/awards/donabedian_.asp).

Lately, I’ve been wondering whether the time is right for ISPE to establish a distinguished scientist award. I’d welcome the input of ISPE members in advance of making a proposal to the ISPE Board of Directors. Issues that I’d particularly like input on are:

• Who (if anyone) should we name the award after?
• Should we restrict the award to ISPE members?
• Should we seek private support to endow the award, or should we pay for it out of current expenses?
• What should the award include? Travel expenses? Honorarium? Plenary address?

I'm sure there are other issues I haven’t thought of. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please email them to me at shenness@cceb.med.upenn.edu by July 1st.

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