Globally renowned bioethicist Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the University of Pennsylvania’s Vice Provost of Global Initiatives and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, has been named a 2018 Dan David Prize Laureate. Emanuel will receive the award at the Dan David Prize Award Ceremony May 6, at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

The Dan David Prize recognizes and encourages innovative and interdisciplinary research and achievements having an outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social impact on our world.

The international Prize annually awards three prizes of (US) $1 million each in three time dimensions: Past, Present and Future. Emanuel will receive the 2018 Dan David Prize for the Present Time Dimension in the field of bioethics. This is the first time in its 17-year history, the Prize has been awarded for bioethics. The Present prize “recognizes achievements that shape and enrich society today.” Emanuel will share the bioethics prize with Baroness Mary Warnock, United Kingdom, and Prof. Jonathan Glover, Kings College London, United Kingdom in the Past and Future Time Dimension. 

The Dan David Prize laureates donate 10 percent of their prize money to postgraduate students in their respective fields, thereby contributing to the community and fostering a new generation of scholars. It is also unique in its outreach efforts in the wider community.

Emanuel contributions to bioethics are wide ranging covering topics as diverse as end-of-life care, the ethics of research with human participants, the allocation of scarce resources, the physician-patient relationship, as well as health policy. Unique among bioethicists, he has been both an empirical and conceptual researcher and has worked to implement his ideas in public policies. 

Emanuel is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, Professor of Health Care Management, and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School.

The Dan David Prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University.