James Hogg, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, received the 2013 Canada Gairdner Wightman Award from the Gairdner Foundation — the country’s premier honour for leadership in medical science.
Dr. Hogg, a principal investigator at the UBC James Hogg Research Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital, was selected for his research leadership in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
More than 700,000 Canadians have been diagnosed with COPD, an incurable disease that inflames the lungs and greatly affects breathing. Throughout his career, Dr. Hogg’s research has remained focused on the mechanisms and anatomical sites of obstructive lung disease, advancing knowledge of how the lung works in health and disease, including the pathophysiology of asthma and the harmful effects of smoking and pollution. His work stresses the importance of finding a diagnostic before symptoms appear, which would lead to the prevention of COPD.
The Wightman Award is the latest in a series of honours Dr. Hogg has received. In 1992, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and he became an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005. In 2003, he was recognized with the prestigious American Society for Investigative Pathology Chugai Award.
“I was surprised and indeed dumbfounded when I received the news that I would receive this award,” Dr. Hogg said. “I am extremely honoured to have been chosen based on lifetime achievement and accept on behalf of the Canadian respiratory community. I hope it will draw attention to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as the enormous world health problem that it is. Canadian investigators have contributed many fundamental observations about COPD and hopefully this award will draw the public’s attention to this very important medical problem.”
Created in 1959, the Gairdner Awards are Canada’s only globally known and respected international biomedical prizes. Nineteen of the last 26 Nobel Prizes in medicine or physiology in the past 10 years have gone to past Gairdner recipients. Established in 1976 in honour of K.J.R. Wightman, a Toronto physician and the second president of the Gairdner Foundation, the Wightman Award is given to a Canadian who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science.
Dr. Hogg completed his medical degree at the University of Manitoba in 1962, his master’s degree in experimental medicine from McGill University in 1967, and his PhD in experimental medicine from McGill University in 1969.
In 1977, Dr. Hogg was recruited to UBC and became the first full-time professor based at St. Paul’s, giving the Pulmonary Research Laboratory an important link with UBC. He went to build a world-renowned centre for pulmonary and cardiovascular research, which now houses more than 200 staff, post graduate, graduate and undergraduate students. In addition to its research, the lab served as a diagnostic referral centre for lung disease in B.C. The lab quickly established itself as the focal point of research excellence in the area of heart-lung, and was named the UBC James Hogg Research Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research in his honour.
“Due to Dr. Hogg’s tireless dedication and continuing research, many sufferers of lung disease can literally breathe a sigh of relief,” said UBC President Stephen J. Toope. ” We are extremely proud of Dr. Hogg’s accomplishments and congratulate him on this well-deserved honour.”
“Dr. Hogg built a centre for cardiovascular and pulmonary research at St. Paul’s Hospital known worldwide,” said Dianne Doyle, the President and CEO of Providence Health Care. “He started with just one trainee and two principal investigators and, over three decades, grew the facility to more than 120 trainees and 30 principal investigators. We are lucky to have benefited from his vast knowledge, and the lives of patients around the world have benefited from his contributions to medical research.”