E D I T O R I A L

International recognition for ageing research: John Scott
Award-2014 to Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead

Suresh Rattan

Received: 21 July 2014 / Accepted: 23 July 2014 / Published online: 12 August 2014

� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

It is with great pleasure and pride that we share the

news of the award of the 2014 ‘‘City of Philadelphia

John Scott Award’’, to Dr. Leonard Hayflick and Dr.

Paul Moorhead, for their research on ageing.

The press release announcing the award states that:

‘‘from the first awarded in 1822, the Award is the

oldest scientific award in the United States and, as a

legacy to Benjamin Franklin, they are in the historic

company of past winners who include Marie Curie,

Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk, Irving Langmuir, Nicola

Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, R. Buckminister Fuller, Sir

Alexander Fleming, Sir Howard Florey, Edwin Land,

and the Wright Brothers…. The award includes a cash
prize, a medal and a certificate and is given to the

‘‘most deserving’’ men and women whose inventions

have contributed in some outstanding way to the

‘‘comfort, welfare and happiness’’ of mankind… The
ceremony and reception will take place on Friday,

November 21, 2014 in Benjamin Franklin Hall at the

American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA.’’

The award announcement also mentions that:

‘‘Dr. Hayflicks’ research discoveries, mostly made at

the Wistar Institute, occurred in the fields of aging,

cancer and microbiology…. He is a member of twenty
scientific societies in which he has held several high

offices including President of the Gerontological

Society of America, founding member of the Council

of the National Institute on Aging, NIH and chairman

of its Executive Committee…. He is an Academician
of the Ukrainian Academy of Medical Sciences,

corresponding member of the Société de Biologie of

France, recipient of the Van Weezel Award by the

European Society for Animal Cell Technology and the

Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Medal by the British

Society for Research on Aging…. In the early 1960s
Hayflick discovered that cultured normal human cells

have a limited capacity to replicate (commonly

referred to as the ‘‘The Hayflick Limit.’’) and

overturned a dogma in which it was believed, since

the field began in 1907, that all cultured cells are

potentially immortal…’’.
Biogerontology thanks and salutes these pioneers

for their life long work in bringing the scientific rigour,

credibility and prestige to the study of ageing.

S. Rattan (&)
Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

e-mail: rattan@mb.au.dk

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Biogerontology (2014) 15:415

DOI 10.1007/s10522-014-9524-1


	International recognition for ageing research: John Scott Award-2014 to Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead