Harriet Dustan Award

Sponsored by the Council on Hypertension

Award submission for Hypertension Scientific Sessions will reopen in spring 2025.

Dr. Harriet Dustan The Harriet Dustan Award recognizes female investigators who have made outstanding contributions in the field of hypertension. The winner will present a lecture during the Hypertension Scientific Sessions.

The award was established to honor the memory of Dr Harriet Dustan, an outstanding clinician and investigator who was a tireless worker on behalf of the Council on Hypertension and the American Heart Association for more than 50 years. During her career, she served as president of the American Heart Association, chaired its Ethics and Research Committees, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Hypertension. She was also the first woman on the Board of Governors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

After beginning her career in 1948 in the Research Division of the Cleveland Clinic with Dr. Irvine H. Page and Dr. Arthur C. Corcoran, Dr. Dustan was among the first to suggest that reducing dietary sodium could lower hypertension and cardiac risks. She became a major force in the field of hypertension, helping to unlock its mechanisms and develop or investigate all the early anti-hypertensive agents, thus changing hypertension from a death sentence to a treatable disease. Dr. Dustan concluded her academic career at the University of Alabama School of Medicine as the director of the Cardiovascular Research and Training Center.

Award Recipients

2024 Jennifer C. Sullivan, PhD, FAHA
2023 Anne Monique Nuyt, MD, FAHA
2022 Aletta E. Schutte, PhD
Maria Luisa Soledad Sequeira Lopez, MD, FAHA
2021 Ulrike Muscha Steckelings, MD, PhD, FAHA
2020 Stephanie W. Watts, PhD, FAHA
2019 Bina Joe, PhD, FAHA, FAPS
2018 Barbara T. Alexander, PhD, FAHA
2017 Kate Denton, PhD, FAHA
2016 Jennifer Pollock PhD, FAHA
2015 Rhian Touyz, MD, PhD, FAHA
2014 Lilach O. Lerman, MD, PhD
2013 Jane Reckelhoff, BS, PhD
2012 Lisa Cassis, PhD
2011 Chris Baylis, PhD
2010 Kathryn Sandberg, PhD
2009 Nancy J. Brown, MD
2008 Suzanne Oparil, MD

Eligibility Criteria

Must be a member of the AHA Council on Hypertension at the time nomination is submitted. Join or renew today!
There are no citizenship requirements.
Previous awardees are not eligible to re-apply for the award.
Past recipients of the Council on Hypertension Excellence Award in Hypertension Research (and all previous names of the award) are not eligible.
Notwithstanding the above, the AHA Officers have the discretion to determine eligibility for the award in extraordinary circumstances when there is an issue relating to AHA policy or positions or other potentially controversial issue relating to the positioning or perception of the AHA.
Members of the Council on Hypertension Awards Committee are not eligible to apply, be nominated, or write letters of support for the award.

How to Submit a Nomination/Required Documents

The nomination file (submitted on the nominee’s behalf) should contain the following documents in PDF format:

A full Curriculum vitae including all publications (abstracts not necessary).
A signed letter of nomination from the sponsor and at least one additional supporting letter. The letters should clearly articulate the major contributions of the nominee to the field of hypertension.
A candidate may be nominated an unlimited number of times by different individuals in the same year. The Awards Committee will assess the candidates' backgrounds, accomplishments, and overall contributions to the field of hypertension.

Members of the Council on Hypertension Awards Committee are not eligible to write support letters for applicants.

Visit the ProposalCentral Council Awards Applicant Instructions page to apply or submit a nomination.

Once logged in, you may apply for the Hypertension Scientific Sessions Mid-Career Achievement Awards and Lectures and select the HTN Harriet Dustan Award from the award drop-down list.