Waldenström Lifetime Achievement Award

Named for Jan Waldenström, a pioneer in treating blood cancers, the Waldenström Lifetime Achievement Award has been given by the IMS at each International Myeloma Workshop since 1989. This award is given to outstanding researchers in recognition of their long term contributions to the myeloma field.

Nominations

Each member of the IMS Board, former awardees and each member of the Award Committee will nominate two candidates for the award. From the names provided, the Awards Committee will select four nominees and will collect the credentials of each candidate, which will then be circulated among the electors.

Final Election

The members of the IMS Board, members of the Awards Committee, and prior awardees, will vote for one candidate from the shortlist of four names. The Awards Committee will then select the awardee taking in consideration the results of the vote

Recipient Profile

Pieter Sonneveld (MD, Ph.D.) received his medical degree from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1977. In 1980 he completed his Ph.D. thesis on the pharmacology of Adriamycin in Acute Leukemia at the University of Leiden (DW van Bekkum & HM Pinedo, promotores). He received a Fogarty Fellowship and worked for several years at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA. 

Dr. Sonneveld is Professor of Hematology at the Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam and has occupied the Chair of the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in Rotterdam for 8 years. From 2011 to 2017 he has been the head of the department of Hematology. His research focus is on clinical and translational aspects of diagnostics and drug therapy in multiple myeloma. The myeloma research group at the Erasmus MC has been very active in molecular diagnostics and prognostic systems. 

He is chairman of the HOVON Myeloma Working Group and he coordinates HOVON and EMN clinical trials for multiple myeloma. Dr Sonneveld helped to found the European Myeloma Network EMN and has been its chairman since 2005. Within EMN, he coordinates a cooperative network for independent clinical trials in Europe and initiates efforts to create international standards for diagnostics and patient care. EMN currently runs 12 international trials, several of which are independent registration trials for novel treatments.

 He has been Board member (2011- ) and President (2017-2019) of the European Hematology Association EHA, and occupies the chair of its Scientific Working Group Committee. He has chaired the Scientific Program Committee of the 19th EHA congress in Milan 2014 and of the EMN Myeloma meetings in 2018 and 2020.

 He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the IMF and MMRF and is a member of the International Myeloma Working Group. Dr Sonneveld has been a member of the Editorial Boards of Blood, Leukemia, Eur J Cancer and Haematologica. Dr Sonneveld has authored more than 500 peer reviewed scientific publications and several book chapters (H-factor 95). He has received numerous grants for his research.

 In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious international Robert Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award in Multiple Myeloma. In 2019 he received the Tobias Wald Award for Cancer Research from Germany.

Past Recipients

• 1989 – D. Bergsagel – deceased (April 25, 1925 – October 20, 2007)
• 1991 – R. Kyle
• 1993 – S. Salmon – deceased (May 8, 1936-October 6, 1999)
• 1995 – M. Potter – deceased (February 27, 1924 – June 18, 2013)
• 1997 – R. Alexanian
• 1999 – B. Barlogie
• 2001 – H. Mellstedt
• 2003 – K. Anderson
• 2005 – J-L Harousseau
• 2007 – J. San Miguel
• 2009 – B. Durie
• 2011 – W. M. Kuehl
• 2013 – N. Munshi
• 2015 – M. Attal
• 2017 – M. A. Dimopoulos
• 2019 – G. Merlini
• 2021 – S. Vincent Rajkumar
• 2022 – P. Sonneveld