Harriet Dustan Award

Sponsored by the Council on Hypertension


To qualify for this Hypertension Scientific Sessions award, sponsored by the Council on Hypertension, you must meet the following deadlines:

  • May 31, 2023 – Deadline to have an active AHA membership with the Council on Hypertension.
  • New Deadline! June 9, 2023, 6 p.m. CDT – Deadline to apply for awards requiring submission in the Council Awards Application System.

Dr. Harriet DustanThe Harriet Dustan Award recognizes female investigators who have made outstanding contributions in the field of hypertension. The award was established to honor the memory of Dr Harriet Dustan, an outstanding clinician and investigator who was a tireless worker on behalf of the Council on Hypertension and the American Heart Association for more than 50 years. During her career, she served as president of the American Heart Association, chaired its Ethics and Research Committees, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Hypertension. She was also the first woman on the Board of Governors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

After beginning her career in 1948 in the Research Division of the Cleveland Clinic with Dr. Irvine H. Page and Dr. Arthur C. Corcoran, Dr. Dustan was among the first to suggest that reducing dietary sodium could lower hypertension and cardiac risks. She became a major force in the field of hypertension, helping to unlock its mechanisms and develop or investigate all the early anti-hypertensive agents, thus changing hypertension from a death sentence to a treatable disease. Dr. Dustan concluded her academic career at the University of Alabama School of Medicine as the director of the Cardiovascular Research and Training Center.

Award Recipients

  • 2022 Aletta E. Schutte, PhD
      Maria Luisa Soledad Sequeira Lopez, MD, FAHA
  • 2021 Ulrike Muscha Steckelings, MD, PhD, FAHA
  • 2020 Stephanie W. Watts, PhD, FAHA
  • 2019 Bina Joe, PhD, FAHA, FAPS
  • 2018 Barbara T. Alexander, PhD, FAHA
  • 2017 Kate Denton, PhD, FAHA
  • 2016 Jennifer Pollock PhD, FAHA
  • 2015 Rhian Touyz, MD, PhD, FAHA
  • 2014 Lilach O. Lerman, MD, PhD
  • 2013 Jane Reckelhoff, BS, PhD
  • 2012 Lisa Cassis, PhD
  • 2011 Chris Baylis, PhD
  • 2010 Kathryn Sandberg, PhD
  • 2009 Nancy J. Brown, MD
  • 2008 Suzanne Oparil, MD

How to Make a Nomination/Required Documents

Electronic submission through the Council Awards Application System is required. Hard copies of any part of the nomination cannot be accepted. Please follow instructions for ProposalCentral, the new Council Awards platform.

Apply Now for the Hypertension Scientific Sessions Mid-Career Achievement Awards and Lectures and select the HTN Harriet Dustan Award from the award drop down list.

The nomination file (submitted on the nominee’s behalf) should contain the following documents in PDF format:

  • A full Curriculum vitae including all publications (abstracts not necessary).
  • A signed letter of nomination from the sponsor and at least one additional supporting letter. The letters should clearly articulate the major contributions of the nominee to the field of hypertension.
  • A candidate may be nominated an unlimited number of times by different individuals in the same year. The Awards Committee will assess the candidates' backgrounds, accomplishments, and overall contributions to the field of hypertension.

Members of the Council on Hypertension Awards Committee are not eligible to write support letters for applicants.

Prize

The honoree will present a lecture during the Hypertension Scientific Sessions. The awardee will receive complimentary registration, a $2,000 honorarium, and an engraved plaque.

Honorees presenting in-person at Hypertension Scientific Sessions will be honored at the Annual Council on Hypertension Awards Banquet and will be eligible for certain travel reimbursements.

  • Round-trip coach airfare at the 21-day advance purchase rate
  • One-night hotel accommodations at the conference rate
  • Ground transportation expenses to attend the conference
  • Up to $70 in meal reimbursement
  • Two tickets to the Annual Hypertension Scientific Sessions Awards Banquet



Questions

black male doctor

AHA Professional Members are Difference Makers

Some Early Career members share a laugh in the exhibits area of AHA's Hypertension 2022 meeting.

Hypertension Scientific Sessions

September 7-10, 2023
Sheraton Boston Hotel | Boston, Massachusetts