ISBT Awards Committee
Committee scope, responsibilities and membership
The ISBT Awards Committee was established in 2025 in response to feedback from Jean Julliard Prize Committee members, Board members and Central Office staff during 2024-25. With an expansion in number and type of ISBT awards and prizes in recent years, as well as considerations arising from evaluation of applications received during this period, it was felt that a review of scope, responsibilities and working arrangements of the Jean Julliard Committee was both needed and important.
The review was conducted by Jill Storry, Michael Busch, Jenny White, Maro Markozani and Erica Wood, aiming for a comprehensive appraisal of existing ISBT awards and prizes, in order to align the awards with ISBT’s current strategic objectives, to promote equity, to simplify the awards system, and to plan for future committee membership arrangements.
A number of potential changes were considered, and several of these were agreed, including to:
- Expand the remit of the group to formally include oversight of the prizes listed below, not only the Jean Julliard Prize, and
- Establish two categories of awards / prizes: one ‘developmental’ and one ‘scientific’, each with a focussed sub-committee to review applications, in order to make best use of the expertise and time of committee members and achieve the best outcomes for ISBT and applicants.
- Change the name of the Developing Country Award to the Ravi Reddy Award, in honour of ISBT’s past president, Ravi Reddy and to minimise potential implications associated with the (now somewhat outdated) term “developing country”.
- Create a new award for top-scoring abstracts at ISBT Congresses from early-career investigators.
- Modify criteria for some awards to promote greater equity. For example, for the Jean Julliard Prize, the requirement for applicant to be more “no more than 40 years of age at the time of submission of the application” was modified to include “those over 40 but at an early career stage, i.e. within five years of post-graduate qualification” to better reflect applicant career pathways and outputs relative to opportunity.
- Consider committee membership, balancing geographic and gender representation along with areas of content expertise and committee continuity/renewal over time.
A new Terms of Reference document was prepared, and several changes were made to individual prize and award regulations, for review by the ISBT Board.
The Awards Committee now oversees the following awards and prizes:
- Jean Julliard Prize
- Vox Sanguinis Best Paper Prize (with nominations received from the Vox Editor-in-Chief and Section Editors)
- Ravi Reddy Award (formerly the Developing Country Award)
- Judith Chapman Award
The ISBT Award remains managed by the ISBT Executive Committee as this is a prerogative of the Executive. The Harold Gunson Fellowships (travel scholarships to the ISBT Congress) and the new Top-Scoring Abstract awards for early-career investigators are managed by the Central Office and Scientific Secretary to align with Congress arrangements. The ISBT Presidential Award arrangements have historically been managed by the Foundation Transfusion Medicine, with the future of this award after 2026 to be determined.
The ISBT Awards Committee is chaired by the ISBT past Past-President, with the Past-President as Vice-Chair and members appointed by the ISBT Executive Committee. During the reporting period the Chair was Erica Wood (Australia) and continuing committee members were Michael Busch (USA), Thierry Burnouf (Taiwan), Steven Spitalnik (USA), Katerina Pavenski (Canada) and Faten Moftah (Egypt). New members were Rick Kapur (Netherlands) appointed to the scientific awards committee, and Shirley Owusu Ofori (Ghana) appointed to the developmental awards committee, with approval from the ISBT Board.
Activities during the period
Please see above for the review of committee scope and responsibilities during this period. Two new members were appointed, as described, and a list of potential new members for 2026 onwards was identified.
The Jean Julliard Prize was established in 1962 in memory of the Society's first Secretary General. The Prize is offered biennially at ISBT International Congresses in recognition of individual achievement in transfusion medicine research and excellent recently completed scientific work. The Prize winner is presented with a certificate and a prize of €5,000, and gives a presentation on their submission during the ISBT Congress.
The ISBT Awards and Prizes Committee received 9 submissions for the 2026 Jean Julliard Prize, Following careful review, however, the Committee concluded that two applicants were ineligible based on age/career stage as defined in the regulations, and none of the applications fully met the high standard required for the distinction of receiving this prize. In accordance with the regulations (“If none of the submitted papers are considered to meet the requirements of the Jean Julliard Committee, the Jean Julliard Prize will not be awarded”) and noting historical precedent, the Committee therefore reluctantly ultimately decided that the Prize would not be awarded in 2026. Naturally, this was disappointing in all respects; however to preserve the integrity and status of the Jean Julliard Prize as a recognition by ISBT of scientific excellence, this was the consensus view of the Committee.
The Board may wish to consider how ISBT can promote applications representing excellent scientific work for consideration for the Jean Julliard Prize in future years.
Vox Sanguinis Best Paper Prize
This prize is awarded each year for the best original paper published in Vox Sanguinis in the previous calendar year. This years’ review was undertaken by Erica Wood, Michael Busch, Steve Spitalnik and Rick Kapur, based on careful review and independent scoring of five nominated papers selected by the Vox Sanguinis section editors. The value of the prize is €5,000.
For 2025 the Prize is awarded to Calandrini C, Verhagen OJHM, Tissoudali A, Homburg CHE, Vessies J, Brussee M, van Beers EH, van der Schoot CE and de Haas M for their manuscript: “Real-world performance of a clinical droplet digital polymerase chain reaction assay for non-invasive foetal blood group and platelet antigen genotyping of alloimmunized pregnant women with antibodies directed against RhD, RhE, Rhc, RhC, K1, HPA-1a or HPA-5b: A 1-year experience” published in Vox Sanguinis 2025 Feb;120(2):170-177.
The prize will be presented at the 39th International Congress of the ISBT in Kuala Lumpur in June 2026.
Note that the committee initially awarded the Prize to: Jagnarine S, Guobadia D, Van Denakker TA, Kyritsis E, Thomas TA and Hudson KE for their manuscript: “Impact of haematocrit, storage duration and recipient sex on post-transfusion recovery of red blood cells in a murine model” published in Vox Sanguinis 2025; 120: 874–880. However, none of the authors was available to attend the 2026, Congress to receive the award, so the Prize was then awarded to the authors of the next highest-scoring paper. Future Awards Committees may wish to review the criterion for an author to be present to accept the award.
The Ravi Reddy Award was established in 2011 as the ISBT Award for Developing Countries. The award was re-named during 2025 for Ravi Reddy, a former President of ISBT and long-term advocate for advancement of blood services in resource-limited settings.
The award is granted to a Blood Service/Centre in a low- or lower-middle-income country that has made a significant contribution in strengthening blood transfusion practice within the country. The organisation receives a certificate presented at the opening ceremony of the next International Congress of the ISBT, full sponsorship for two delegates to attend the Congress (up to €6,000) and sponsorship of an education symposium in the country of the winning applicant (value up to €10,000).
In 2026, 15 applications were received, many of which were very strong. Tata Memorial Hospital Department of Transfusion Medicine (Blood Centre) in Mumbai, India, was selected as the recipient this year, with the team led by Dr. Priti Desai.
The prize will be presented at the 39th International Congress of the ISBT in Kuala Lumpur in June 2026.
The Judith Chapman Award was established in 2023 in honour of the Society's first Executive Director, reflecting her passion for supporting people in their professional development, in particular the fields of leadership and management. Transfusion professionals in a leadership role at an early stage of their career (5-10 years’ experience) are eligible for nomination. The award's value is up to €7500 in the form of a scholarship to undertake a leadership or management course, an annual membership of the ISBT, if not already a member, and complimentary attendance, including costs, at an ISBT congress.
In 2026, 10 applications were received and evaluated according to the Judith Chapman Award regulations, against criteria including being a champion, an encourager, a visionary and passionate about their role; demonstrating courage, humility, integrity, credibility and creativity and being willing to adapt to situations and propose changes to practice.
The 2026 Judith Chapman Award is granted to Dr. Koga Luhulla, Haematologist and Head of the Blood Transfusion Unit at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania.
The prize will be presented at the 39th International Congress of the ISBT in Kuala Lumpur in June 2026.
Acknowledgments
The Awards Committee congratulates all the awardees, and recognises the great interest in these awards from the Society’s members and the worldwide transfusion community, and the high quality of many of the nominations and applications for this year’s awards.
The Chair thanks the current and previous committee members and ISBT Central Office staff, particularly Maro Markozani and Jenny White, for their contributions and for their service to ISBT.
