The Frank Annunzio Award is named for the late Honorable Frank Annunzio, former United States Representative from the 11th Congressional District of Chicago, Illinois, and founder of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.

The two $25,000 Awards are designed to honor living Americans who are improving the world through ingenuity and innovation and to provide incentive for continuing research and/or a specific project.

Frank Annunzio Awards Columbus Scholars

John J. Wild, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Wild received the first $100,000 Frank Annunzio Award in October 1998. Dr. Wild is the pre-eminent pioneer of modern diagnostic medical ultrasound. His creativity, vision and breadth of accomplishment are outstanding in the development of this universally important field of medicine. In 1949, Dr. Wild discovered that high-frequency pulse-echo ultrasound was reflected by soft biological tissues. Building on this discovery, he created an interdisciplinary research team to develop his concepts for using reflected ultrasound for noninvasive medical diagnosis and assessment. He is credited with having pioneered the first new medical imaging modality since the discovery of X-rays in 1895. Many recent applications of ultrasonic medical imaging are based on Dr. Wild's original scientific investigations, instrumentation design and technological contributions in the field.

Charles H. Townes, Ph.D. Dr. Townes was the second recipient of the $100,000 Frank Annunzio Award in October 1999 for his research on the microwave spectra of molecules and the ultimate invention of the laser. In the 1940s, microwave oscillators involved klystrons and magnetrons which could not produce wavelengths shorter than a few millimeters. Dr. Townes was eager to find an oscillator which could produce much shorter waves in order to extend his spectroscopic studies. In 1951, Dr. Townes came up with the idea to stimulate a molecule or atom to give up energy, thus increasing the radiation intensity. This led to the invention of the MASER (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). In 1957, Dr. Townes perfected the procedure to produce infrared and visible radiation, or the LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission for radiation). Lasers have become important surgeon's tools, are used in manufacturing, in telecommunications and in reading and writing computer disks, among other uses. Dr. Townes received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for his advances in the field of quantum electronics, and he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1976.

Millard Fuller. Mr. Fuller, Founder and President of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), was honored for his humanitarian vision and commitment to improving the lives of families in need worldwide. Through HFHI, his goal of providing safe, decent, affordable shelter for everyone has lead to the building of simple, affordable houses in which 450,000 people live. The grassroots community service program is self-sustaining, as the houses Habitat builds are sold to their owners with no-profit, no-interest mortgages, the resulting mortgage payments are used to build additional houses. Houses have been built in more than 1,600 U.S. cities and 78 other countries. The 100,000th Habitat house was built in September 2000. The 200,000th house will be built before the end of 2005. HFHI has grown to be one of the top 20 house builders in the U.S. - and the largest among non-profits.

Maya Lin. Ms. Lin is an artist who has a studio practice in New York City. Ms. Lin has established herself in both the art and architecture communities with her unique vision and sensibility. Her monuments, including The Women's Table at Yale University, The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL, and The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., have been highly acclaimed for creating an intensely private experience within the most public context. She has been praised for using art as a medium to address critical social and political issues of our time— war, racism and gender equality— reflecting the belief that it is through understanding and remembering our past that we can create a better future.

Robert C. Gallo, M.D. Dr. Gallo was honored for his pioneering research into the understanding of human disease which has led to the eradication of certain deadly diseases and opened new frontiers in medical research. Dr. Gallo was among the first to apply the tools of molecular biology to advance the understanding of human disease. These discoveries laid the foundation for new diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for cancer, chronic viral diseases and autoimmunity.

Michael Graves. As a leading contemporary architect, Michael Graves has helped to influence the transformation of architecture from abstract modernism toward more contextual and traditional themes since the 1980s. He has created buildings that are profoundly sensitive to their surroundings and he designs at every scale, from master-planning to the smallest details. Notable projects include: The Humana Building in Louisville, KY, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels in Orlando, FL, and the Denver Central Library in Colorado.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. From the early 1970s to the present, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci has been internationally recognized as the world's leading researcher in the study of host defense mechanisms against infectious diseases and the immunopathogenesis for certain immune-mediated diseases, having made many contributions to basic and clinical research. Dr. Fauci has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how the AIDS virus destroys the body's defenses leading to its susceptibility to deadly infections.

James C. Cobey, M.D.,M.P.H. is a lifelong champion of humanitarian causes who has put his professional medical expertise in orthopaedics to good use by helping thousands of children, patients, and landmine and war victims worldwide under the auspices of the American Red Cross and Health Volunteers Overseas. Dr. Cobey led a mission with Physicians for Human Rights to collect reliable estimates on the medical tragedies caused by landmines. His research resulted in bringing unheralded attention to the issue of landmines and helped galvanize support for a ban and eventually led to the creation of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a group responsible for the 40-nation Mine Ban treaty calling for the destruction of stockpiled mines. Dr. Cobey volunteers for a wide variety of humanitarian causes including the plight of refugees with Refugees International and offers his professional care at no expense to recent indigent immigrants who have no access to critically needed medical care. As a member of Physicians for Human Rights, Dr. Cobey shared in the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

William P. Magee Jr., D.D.S, M.D. Under Dr. Magee's leadership, Operation Smile, Inc., a private, not-for-profit volunteer medical services organization, has provided reconstructive surgery and related health care to indigent children and young adults in developing countries and the United States. Globally, Operation Smile has trained thousands of physicians and other health professionals who volunteer their time to perform advanced medical procedures in their own local hospitals, dramatically improving the quality of life for the children-tens of thousands to date. In addition, Operation Smile is planning a study of 9,000 pregnant women to test diet and nutrition supplements as a way to reduce rates of deformity.

M. Ian Phillips, Ph.D. Dr. Ian Phillips is internationally known for his basic research on the brain and renin-angiotensin system, and for his invention of potential new therapies for chronic diseases using gene targeting approaches. Dr. Phillips has applied his 30 years of academic and medical research and teaching to the study of heart and cardiovascular disease that affects millions of people. Among his many findings, he accurately concluded that anti- hypertension drugs must work in tissue not blood to be successful. He is currently discovering novel methods to help the 70% of people suffering from hypertension who do not react well to traditional treatments. In addition, Dr. Phillips has inspired and educated more than 3,000 medical students and 40 PhD and postdoctoral fellows.

Ray Wu, Ph.D. Dr. Wu, a pioneer in genetic engineering, played an essential role in the discovery of the first method for sequencing DNA, and the subsequent and related development of new cereal crops for third world countries. Based on his keen knowledge of DNA, he found a way to potentially and dramatically improve third-world food production by identifying the production of drought- and salt-tolerant transgenic rice plants. He has created a substantial cooperative understanding between the U.S. and China in biological science and education.

James A. Thomson, V.M.D., Ph.D., Diplomate A.C.V.P. Dr. Thomson was the first to isolate and culture nonhuman primate embryonic stem (ES) cells in 1995, and human ES cells in 1998. Dr. Thomson's research goals are to use ES cells to improve knowledge of basic reproductive biology, and to explore using ES-derived cells to treat health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, leukemia and degenerative neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis. Since joining the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in 1991, Dr. Thomson has conducted pioneering work with ES cells. These cells have the ability to become any of the cells that make up the tissues of the body, which will give birth to exploration of the body not previously imagined. ES cell lines have widespread implications for human developmental biology, drug discovery, drug testing and transplantation medicine. This research is exciting because stem cells are immortal and have an almost unlimited developmental potential. After months or years of growth in culture dishes, these cells retain the ability to form cells ranging from heart muscle to nerve to blood-potentially any cell type that makes up the body. Dr. Thomson's research has encouraged scientists around the world, and stem cells have been successfully differentiated into precursors for brain, heart, blood and pancreatic tissue, to name a few. The proliferative and developmental potential of human ES cells promises an essentially unlimited supply of specific cell types for in vitro experimental studies and for transplantation therapies for heart disease, Parkinson's disease and leukemia.

Jennifer West, Ph.D. - Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, was awarded the 2004 $50,000 Frank Annunzio Award for her research in biomaterials and tissue engineering focusing on the synthesis, development and application of novel biofunctional materials and on the use of biomaterials and engineering approaches to study biological problems. One area of Dr. West's research involves tissue engineering aimed at creating new materials for small-diameter vascular grafts. A related area of Dr. West's research involves the use of bioengineering to combat restenosis, a complication that often arises after angioplasty, the balloon procedure used to open clogged arteries. She is developing polymer materials that can be coated on arteries after they are opened with the balloon. The polymers release nitric oxide, a chemical that helps arteries heal without the clotting and scar tissue formation associated with thrombosis.

Bruce E. Logan, Ph.D. - Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Dr. Logan and his research group are pioneering completely new ways to make electricity based on recovering energy from waste. They have shown that it is possible to produce electricity from waste organic matter in water, with a device called a microbial fuel cell. This device uses only ordinary bacteria found in our natural environmental as the catalyst for organic matter degradation. Treating water and wastewater currently consumes five percent of the electricity generated annually in the United States. The process being developed accomplishes both wastewater treatment and results in the generation of excess power. This could result in the reduced need for electricity for wastewater treatment, and could generate excess electricity for communities. Dr. Logan’s research could help improve world health as well as contribute to energy production. Over two million people in the world lack adequate sanitation, in part due to the high energy costs for modern wastewater treatment methods. Often this is because electricity is expensive and production can be intermittent. This process could lead to treatment plants that do not need electricity input, thus freeing the need for electricity to run the plant. If implemented around the world, such treatment processes could lead to improved global health by reducing the potential for the spread of disease.

Joseph Chaiken, Ph.D. - Professor of Chemistry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. A ten year-old left in a dark room with a flashlight for a few minutes will usually press the light up against his or her hand or some other body part to behold the red glow. The red glow shows that of the colors comprising white light, only the red has extensive penetration through the tissues. The technology developed by Dr. Chaiken and his team for LighTouch Medical, uses CD player-type lasers that have been "kicked up a notch" to probe blood in capillaries in fingertips with very pure red light. Significantly, they also showed how to obtain information from the blood part of the fingertip without interference from the other tissues, i.e. skin, bone, fat, etc. From the various colors of red light that emanate from the probed tissue, they discovered that it was possible and successfully demonstrated as one method to obtain quantitative information on glucose and a number of other important metabolites including, but not necessarily limited to, total protein, albumin, cholesterol, urea, triglycerides, and hemoglobin. This technology will relieve millions of people with diabetes from the need to use fingersticks to monitor their glucose, and also will eventually allow all people to obtain a "non-invasive blood panel" comprised of a number of analytes simultaneously. Such analytes are routinely monitored on hospital check-in, doctors’ office visits, etc. millions of times each day in the United States alone. Each test requires the removal of 2-4 vials of blood from a patient. The risks, discomfort and costs associated with millions of blood draws each day will be avoided once and for all. The possible overall reduction of costs to the health care system will be in the billions of dollars per year.