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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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is interested in these awards.

Q:

Is there any set pattern for the juries you appoint?

Lasker:

No, we just try to get the most distinguished people in the field that we feel are, in general, open-minded and sensitive and well informed, and we have some change in the juries from year to year, but we try not to get too rigid a setup so that we're not trapped by our own red tape.

Our intention in giving these awards was to honor the outstanding workers of our time, and to make knowledge of their contributions more quickly available to their colleagues and to the public at large; especially, I was anxious that new information in the field of medical research be available so that the contributions would be used to save people more quickly, to save them from disability and death.

The journalism award has been given to encourage outstanding accuracy and comprehensiveness in reporting medical news. I'd like to have my sister give you some of her reactions to the importance of the journalism awards and the awards generally, as she runs the awards.

Q:

Has she been associated with the awards from the beginning?

Lasker:

Well, yes, but in the last two years, since we have appointed the juries ourselves for journalism and for medical research, she's run them entirely, and she gets more of a reaction





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