Timothy J. Eberlein, M.D., received the 2006 Dr. Rodman L. Sheen and Thomas G. Sheen Award, given each year for outstanding contributions to the medical profession.
Eberlein is the Bixby Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and director of Siteman Cancer Center and surgeon-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Thomas Sheen, a tailor, clothier and real estate professional, created the award as a tribute to his brother Rodman Sheen, a radiologist and pioneer of Roentgen rays, or X-rays. The Sheen award has honored 39 of the foremost members of the nation’s medical community since its beginning in 1968. The $25,000 award was presented by Bank of America, trustee under Thomas Sheen’s will, at the annual convention of the New Jersey Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.
Eberlein was instrumental in developing Siteman, which was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute in 2005, six years after its inception. Siteman is the third-largest cancer center in the United States.
In 2004, Eberlein was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive.
Prior to joining WUSTL in1998, Eberlein was the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Previous Sheen awardees have included Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a leader of the Human Genome Project; Judah Folkman, M.D., who established that cancer depended on new blood vessel growth; Mary-Clair King, Ph.D., who identified mutations that cause breast cancer; and Thomas Starzl, M.D., Ph.D., known as the father of modern transplantation.