Medicine: For Outstanding Service

People in public health and research work generally do a plodding, worthwhile, unspectacular job that the public never hears about. To give deserved credit to outstanding workers in these fields, the American Public Health Association, since 1946, has presented the annual Lasker Awards ($500 to $2,500 in cash, plus a silver or gold statuette of the Winged Victory). This year’s winners, announced this week:

¶Dr. Haven Emerson, treasurer of the National Health Council, past president of the A.P.H.A.

¶Miss Marion Sheahan, R.N. (the first nonphysician to win a Lasker Award), executive director of the National Committee for the Improvement of Nursing Services.

¶Dr. Andre Cournand of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, for his work on the circulation of the blood, and in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

¶Dr. Max Theiler, of the Rockefeller Foundation, for experimental work resulting in the production of two new yellow fever vaccines.

¶Drs. William S. Tillett and L. R. Christensen of the New York University School of Medicine, jointly, for discovering and purifying streptokinase and streptodornase, enzyme substances effective against clots in the body (e.g., pus or dead tissue) which delay healing. ¶Drs. Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench of the Mayo Clinic, jointly, for work which led to the development of the dramatic easer of arthritis, cortisone (TIME, May 2).