The Jean Dussault Medal for young investigators is given annually to honour a member of the International Society for Neonatal Screening who has made a significant contribution to neonatal or other population-based screening which is recognized as such. The Medal is awarded to recognise the contribution made by outstanding young investigators and consequently the nominee should be 40 years of age or younger. The Medal is accompanied by a cash prize of USD 2000,– donated by Bio-Rad (California).
The recipient may opt to receive the prize money in the form of a travel award to one of the ISNS-sponsored neonatal screening conferences or to have it used in one of the ISNS-sponsored neonatal screening development projects.
Nomination for the Medal
Nomination for the Dussault Medal may be made by any active member of the International Society for Neonatal Screening (ISNS) and must be seconded by at least one other active member of the ISNS. The nomination must be accompanied by a statement of 100-200 words which describes the nature of the contribution and the way this contribution has produced or is likely to produce improvements in population/neonatal screening programmes. The statement may be accompanied by supporting information such as copies of publications, curriculum vitae or other documentation of the contribution. This information together with a letter from the nominator and at least one seconding letter from a Society member must be sent to the President of ISNS. A member may not nominate or second more than one nominee for the Medal each year. The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer are not eligible for the Medal.
Voting for the Medal
A list of nominees together with copies of the supporting information for each nominee will be circulated to all members of the ISNS Council, and others who may be appointed by the President if deemed necessary and appropriate by the Council. Each of the members above will be able to cast a vote for one nominee for the Medal in any one year. However, an eligible member of Council who is nominated for the Medal will not be able to vote. The method for voting will be by ballot as determined by the President in consultation with the other office holders, and the votes will be auditable by the Secretary of the ISNS.
The Council members review the documentation and decide on their vote. All votes are sent to the ISNS Office manager who tabulates the results.
- If there is only one nomination, the vote is either positive or negative (or abstention); in case of a tie the President has a second vote.
- If there are two nominations, the vote is for nominee A or for nominee B (or abstention); in case of a tie the President has a second vote.
- If there are three (or more) nominees, the preferred nominee gets a score of 3 points (or 4, or 5, or 6 ... etc in case of multiple nominees), the second preferred nominee gets a score of 2 points, and the least preferred nominee gets a score of 1 point; in other words the vote consists of all names together with the appropriate points.
In a situation with three or more nominees the total points per nominee may be tied. In case of three nominees the nominee with the highest number of scores "3" is the winner. In a situation with four nominees the one with the highest number of scores "4" is the winner; if then there is still a tie, then the nominee with the highest number of scores "3", etc."
The Council may elect not to present the Medal if no nominations for significant contribution are received or if those received are deemed unworthy. On the other hand the voting committee may conclude to honour more than one nomination in one year.
Announcement of the Dussault Medal recipient
The Dussault Medal recipient will be announced on the website of the Society. There will be a brief biography of the recipient and an explanation of the contribution made.
2007: Zoltan Lukacs
2008: Issam Khneisser
2009: Victor de Jesus
2011: Susan Tanksley
2012: David Kasper
2013: Scott Shone
2014: Giancarlo La Marca
2015: Jennifer Taylor
2016: Gwendolyn Gramer
2017: Marleen Jansen
2018: Natasha Heather
2019: Stephan Borte
2020: Francyne Kubaski
2021: Ulrike Mütze
2022: Amy Gaviglio
2023: Kristin Kernohan