13th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research (Pearline Award)

2025 Rachel Pearline Award

The Rachel Pearline Award honors Rachel Pearline, MD, MPH. Dr. Pearline was a revered oncology fellow who received the award named in her memory in 2016 following her death at the age of 38, in November 2015, from gastric cancer. While in medical school, she completed rotations in South Africa, Haiti, Romania, and rural China where she learned to speak Mandarin fluently. For her work, she received a prestigious Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellowship and Tulane University’s award for “Outstanding International Relationships.” Dr. Pearline was virtuously committed to global cancer control and provided quality care to her patients. She viewed the practice of medicine as a privilege, always striving to serve her patients better.

In honor of Dr. Rachel Pearline, the 13th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research Steering Committee would like to invite nominations for the 2025 Annual Rachel Pearline Award. As part of the Symposium each year, we recognize one outstanding professional who embodies virtue and eminence in cancer research, practice, and/or training in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) setting. The theme of the 2025 Symposium is "New Models for Participatory Research in Global Oncology: Elevating the Voices of Patients and Providers” and the Steering Committee invites nominations of individuals, at any stage in their career, who have made major contributions to global cancer research, practice, and training. The nominee should be affiliated with an institution from a LMIC and their work should focus on cancer research, practice, and/or training in an LMIC setting.

The nominee will be recognized at the virtual Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research on May 8th, 2025. The nominee will be expected to take part in the award presentation ceremony as well as to give a keynote address that highlights their contributions to cancer research, practice, and/or training in an LMIC setting, and their future perspectives.

The Steering Committee will review nominations based on the following criteria:

  1. Demonstration of commitment to and excellence in cancer research, practice, and/or training
  2. Focus on reducing inequities through cancer research, practice, and/or training
  3. Affiliation with an institution based in an LMIC
  4. Cancer control research, practice, and training activities either entirely or predominantly implemented in LMICs
  5. Career stage and potential to contribute to cancer control in LMICs in the future

Additional eligibility criteria:

  1. Nominations submitted in previous years are accepted
  2. Self-nominations are accepted
  3. Nominee must confirm willingness/ability to accept the award and deliver a keynote address, virtually, at the Symposium in advance of nomination submission (confirmation to be stated within the nomination form).

Timeline

The nomination period is October 14th, 2024 through January 17th, 2025.

The nominee will be selected and notified in February 21st, 2025.

Rachel Pearline Award Nomination Form

Submit a Rachel Pearline Award Nomination

Submit the form by January 17th, 2025. Contact douglas.puricelliperin@nih.gov with any questions.

Previous Rachel Pearline Award Winners

2024 Benda Kithaka, Founder and Executive Director, KILELE Health, Nairobi, Kenya
2023 Yin Ling Woo, MA, MRCOG, PhD, Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Malaysia
2022 C. S. Pramesh, MD, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital, Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India
2021 Karla Alfaro, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Basic Health International, San Salvador, El Salvador 
2020 Frederick Chite Asirwa, MD, Consultant Physician, Medical Oncologist & Hematologist, CEO, International Cancer Institute (ICI), Eldoret, Kenya
2018 You-lin Qiao, MD, PhD, professor and Director for Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Cancer Institute, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Beijing, China.
2017 Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, Executive Vice President and Chair of the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine and Director of the International Outreach Program
2016 Rachel Pearline, MD, MPH, Diplomate of Medical Oncology