George C Williams Award for 2024

The award for the best articles published in Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in 2023 goes equally to two articles.

Biomarkers or biotargets? Using competition to lure cancer cells into evolutionary traps, by Anuraag Bukkuri, Frederick R Adler (equal co-authors). Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2023, Pages 264–276, https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoad017 .

First author Anuraag Bukkuri will present the work at the ISEMPH annual meeting in Durham, UK, 6-9 August 2024.

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Signalling need for care: a neglected functional role of medical treatment, by Mícheál de Barra, Kawthar Hakimy, Marijn de Bruin, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2023, Pages 363–378, https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoad024.

First author Mícheál de Barra will present the work at the ISEMPH annual meeting in Durham, UK, 6-9 August 2024.

The George C. Williams Prize  of $1,000 is awarded each year to the  first author of the most significant article published in the Society’s flagship journal, Evolution, Medicine and Public Health. Oxford University Press publishes the journal open access. Cynthia Beall is the editor. All articles published each year will be automatically considered for the Prize. The Prize is made possible by donations from Doris Williams, Randolph Nesse, and other supporters of Evolution Medicine, & Public Health

The Prize recognizes the contributions of George C Williams to evolutionary medicine, and aims to encourage and highlight important research in this growing field. In a seminal 1957 paper, Williams initiated work on several problems central to medicine, including an evolutionary theory of aging and life history traits including menopause. He did important work on the problem of why sex exists. Perhaps his most lasting contribution is his 1966 book Adaptation and Natural Selection, a critique of group selection that transformed how biologists think about the evolution of sociality. In the 1990’s he collaborated with Randolph Nesse on a series of papers and a book that inspired much ongoing work on how evolutionary biology can help us understand disease and improve human health. 

Warmest thanks to the Editor, Cynthia Beall, and the Prize Committee: Bernhard Crespi (chair), Joe Alcock, Michelle Blyth, Manus Patten, and to donors who make the Prize possible.