About the Prize
The Dickson Prize in Medicine is the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s most prestigious award. Given annually to a leading U.S. investigator engaged in innovative, paradigm-shifting biomedical research, the winner of the Dickson Prize in Medicine receives a $50,000 award with a medallion and presents the Dickson Prize in Medicine Lecture at Pitt.
The Dickson Prize frequently aligns with other major recognitions in the field. Since 1970–71, the first year the prize was awarded, 17 Dickson Prize recipients have gone on to win Nobel Prizes. Twenty-four Dickson Prize winners also hold Lasker Awards, among the most prestigious accolades for biomedical research.
History of the Dickson Prize in Medicine
Joseph Zimmerman Dickson (1868-1954) was a practicing physician and surgeon in Pittsburgh for more than 61 years. Early in his career, he was known to make house calls on horseback and accept payment in bartered goods. Dickson was born in what is now Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania; Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio; and the Western Pennsylvania Medical College (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine). He also trained in surgery at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and St. Louis Hospital in Paris before starting a practice in downtown Pittsburgh. His son and only heir, James, died of Hodgkin’s disease in 1923 at age 16.
In 1948, Dickson retired from his practice but continued to work out of his Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home. Also in 1948, having been widowed, he married Agnes Fischer, his nurse for 40 years, who also was born in the Pittsburgh area.
His will and that of his wife, Agnes Fischer Dickson (who died in 1966), stipulated that their estates endow a trust to fund the Dickson Prize in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and the Dickson Prize in Science at Carnegie Mellon University, to recognize outstanding research contributions.
The Medal
The front of the Dickson Prize medal shows Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine. Like the Dickson Prize, he is not associated with any one branch of medicine but rather with medical excellence in general.
He faces right, focusing attention on the words “Dickson Prize" and the Roman numerals for 1970, the year the award was established.
The reverse side of the medal features the rod of Aesculapius, to symbolize medicine and physicians.
The ribbon is half green, representing medicine, and half blue and gold, which are Pitt’s colors.
The metal tab on the green side of the ribbon unifies the piece and is engraved with each Dickson Prize recipient's name and the date the prize is awarded.
