Albert Lasker
Clinical Medical Research Award

Opening Remarks by the Jury Chairman

James Reston was perhaps our most influential journalist during his 50 years as a columnist and editor for The New York Times. Reston once wrote that America turns to the sports pages before it turns to the editorials and pays more attention to Maris vs. Ruth than Khrushchev vs. Kennedy. According to Reston, baseball is more popular than foreign policy because in baseball the results are definitive. You know immediately when you hit a home run, and you don't have to wait 25 years to see how the thing comes out.

Biomedical research is both like baseball and foreign policy. Like Babe Ruth, each of our seven 1998 Lasker Award honorees made a scientific hit early in his or her career. But unlike Babe Ruth, they did not know right away whether their hit was a home run or simply a long fly ball. It took more than 20 years to find out. In this regard, their lives are more like those of Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright than Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

But scientists, diplomats, and home run hitters do share one thing in common: they all face a lot of curve balls! Today, I'm here to tell you that all seven of our Lasker winners have enjoyed lifelong scientific success. They not only hit home runs; they also hit grand slams.

The presentation of this year's Lasker Basic Science Award will be made by Ira Herskowitz, professor of genetics at the University of California in San Francisco. Ira is one of the most creative and influential scientists in the world and has been a long-term and dedicated member of the Lasker Jury. Our Jury deliberations are always enlightened by Ira's wisdom and enlivened by his wit. It's indeed an honor to introduce Ira to you.

I will present the Lasker Clinical Science Award and the Lasker Special Achievement Award.