Victor J. Dzau, MD
National Academy of Medicine
Over his illustrious, four-decade-long career as a physician-scientist and leader in academic medicine, Victor J. Dzau, MD, has helped shape the field of cardiovascular medicine and the institutions, policies, and partnerships advancing health around the world. In July 2026, Dr. Dzau completed an exemplary 12-year tenure as president of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM), during which he strengthened its role as a trusted authority and catalyst for advancing health care for all and addressing some of the world’s most pressing health challenges.
Dr. Dzau began his career at the forefront of cardiovascular research. In 1980, he became the first researcher to definitively demonstrate the role of the renin-angiotensin system in cardiovascular regulation and was among the first to investigate and report the salutary effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in patients with refractory congestive heart failure; this work helped lay the foundations for life-saving ACE inhibitors, now widely used around the world to treat hypertension and heart failure. His later contributions included pioneering approaches to gene therapy for vascular disease in the 1990s and, in 2005, he introduced the paracrine hypothesis of stem cell action, transforming scientific understanding of how stem cells contribute to cardiac repair and regeneration and informing the development of subsequent therapies to repair damaged heart tissue.
Dr. Dzau’s scientific achievements have been matched by his deep commitment to institutional leadership and innovation. At Duke University, where he serves as chancellor emeritus for health affairs, he expanded the university’s research and education mission by creating new institutes focused on translational medicine, global health, and health innovation. He also led the creation of a joint medical school with the National University of Singapore, extending his influence and impact on medical education internationally.
These experiences provided the foundation for his leadership of the NAM. During his tenure as president, Dr. Dzau positioned the NAM to confront complex health challenges, requiring collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and national boundaries. Under his leadership, the NAM advanced its work in areas such as global health equity, clinician well-being, health care transformation, climate and health, and preparedness for emergency health threats. The NAM collaborated with many organizations, including the AAMC, to engage the academic medicine community in addressing health and health care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Dzau was instrumental in initiating international responses to develop diagnostics, treatments, and a vaccine. And throughout his tenure, he reinforced the NAM’s role as a trusted convener, bringing together different perspectives to translate scientific knowledge into actionable solutions and address challenges beyond the capacity of any single institution or sector.
In recognition of his broad and enduring contributions, Dr. Dzau has received 25 honorary doctorate degrees, was named an American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist in 2004, received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2005, and was awarded Singapore’s Honorary Citizen Award in 2019. In 2025, the Government of Japan named him to the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays With Neck Ribbon, in recognition of his distinguished service.
Born in Shanghai, Dr. Dzau and his family fled to Hong Kong to escape the Chinese Civil War. At age 18, he matriculated to McGill University in Montreal, where he earned his BS and MD degrees, completing his studies in 1972. He was named chief resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 1978 and completed fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The AAMC offers this Special Recognition Award to acknowledge Dr. Dzau’s far-reaching impact on medicine, research, and health policy, and his enduring commitment to advancing solutions to the most pressing health challenges.
Mary Woolley, MA
Research!America
During her 35-year career at the helm of Research!America, Mary Woolley played a pivotal role in elevating research and innovation as national priorities and was instrumental in fostering bipartisan support for biomedical research. Her efforts advanced sustained federal investments in science and helped Research!America cultivate strong, cross-sector partnerships among scientists, academic medicine leaders, patient advocates, industry leaders, policymakers, and the public.
Woolley came to health research advocacy indirectly. The Chicago native received a BS in social sciences from Stanford University and an MA in humanities from San Francisco State University. An early position serving as San Francisco project director for the then-largest-ever NIH-funded clinical trial, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, pushed Woolley toward the health sciences. As she told the National Academy of Medicine in 2016 — where she was an elected member and had served two terms on its governing council — having “the opportunity to make a difference in health by bringing to bear what I knew and cared about from the policy world” turned a job into a career at the intersection of research and political science.
In 1981, she became administrator of the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco and was named its executive director and CEO in 1986. Service as president of the Association of Independent Research Institutes led to her recruitment to Research!America as president and CEO in 1990, where she quickly earned the respect of elected and appointed officials; researchers in the public, private, and academic sectors; the media; and community leaders.
Under Woolley’s leadership, Research!America frequently partnered with the AAMC to advocate for increased federal funding to strengthen federal research and health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the organization also advocated through its role on the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research steering committee.
Numerous leaders of medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals have served on Research!America’s Board of Directors throughout the years, alongside Woolley and other prominent leaders in science, health, and government. With a keen instinct for shaping public awareness, Woolley made Research!America a trusted source for public opinion polling, advocacy materials, and high-profile events addressing some of the most pressing issues for the academic medicine community.
In addition to her work with Research!America, Woolley has held leadership positions in national organizations, including serving on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Life Sciences and its Board for Higher Education and Workforce. She’s also been a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is a founding member of the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Additionally, she’s served as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation and on numerous academic boards and advisory councils.
Research!America’s publications and educational initiatives have been honored by leading regional and international communications and advocacy organizations. Woolley’s science advocacy and research-related publications include op-eds and letters to the editor in newspapers and magazines across the country, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. She has also been published in Science, Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
An in-demand speaker who effectively translates the nuances of science, research, and policy for nonscience audiences, Woolley has been recognized by PBS as an “Unsung Heroine.” She holds three honorary doctoral degrees and has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize and the H. Jack Geiger Icon Award from the former School of Biomedical Education at the CUNY School of Medicine. She retired from Research!America in June 2026.