The Ham-Wasserman Lecture, named in honor of renowned hematologists Drs. Thomas Hale Ham and Louis R. Wasserman, is given annually by an individual from outside the United States who has contributed significantly to an area of hematology. The late Drs. Ham and Wasserman were past American Society of Hematology presidents who contributed extensively to the Society and worked together to initiate an Education Program at the annual meeting. Dr. Ham focused on the pathophysiology of hemolytic anemias and won acclaim for his development of a diagnostic test (the Ham Test) for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinurea (PNH). One of his major endeavors was the unique medical education curriculum he developed for the Western Reserve University medical students, which centered on the idea that medical students should be treated as both colleagues and clients. Dr. Wasserman wrote or collaborated on some 200 papers on the red blood cell, iron metabolism, and the remediation of blood disorders through radiation, antibiotics, and nutrition. His research in polycythemia vera did much to illuminate the understanding of myeloproliferative disorders, and under his leadership in the 1960s, the Polycythemia Vera Study Group established a standard of care for patients with this disorder and conducted one of the first clinical investigations involving a number of cooperative groups in both the United States and abroad.

Ham Wasserman Lectures

1984 - Daniel Catovsky, MD
1985 - Desire Collen, MD, PhD
1986 - David J. Weatherall, MD
1987 - Lucio Luzzatto, MD, FRCPC, FRCPath
1988 - Gianni Bonadonna, MD
1989 - Salvador Moncada, FRCP, FRS
1990 - Donald Metcalf, MD
1991 - Uri Seligsohn, MD
1992 - Anthony S. Fauci, MD
1993 - Guido Lucarelli, MD
1994 - Björn Dahlbäck AM, MD, PhD
1995 - Janet D. Rowley, MD
1996 - Jack Hirsch, MD
1997 - John M. Goldman, DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci
1998 - Eliane Gluckman, MD
1999 - James P. Kushner, MD
2000 - Leo Sachs, MD
2001 - Desire Collen, MD, PhD
2002 - Pier M. Mannucci, MD
2003 - Zhen-Yi Wang, MD
2004 - Doug Higgs, MD
2005 - Frits Rosendaal, MD
2006 - Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSc
2007 - Radek Skoda, MD
2008 - Bob Löwenberg, MD, PhD
2009 - Mevlyn F. Greaves, PhD
2010 - Tsvee Lapidot, PhD
2011 - Peter Carmeliet, MD, PhD

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