Dr. John C. Warren, the co-founder of the Massachusetts General Hospital and its first surgeon.

Warren Triennial Prize

Named after Dr. John C. Warren, the co-founder of the Massachusetts General Hospital and its first surgeon, the Warren Triennial Prize was first given in 1871. Its founding is described in a history of the "MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL," printed by the Trustees in 1872. There it states:

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL - The Warren Prize, founded by the late J. Mason Warren, in memory of his father, John C. Warren, being the income of 2,000 for three years, will be awarded, after February 1871, to the author of the best original dissertation, considered worthy of a prize, on some subject in physiology, surgery, or pathological  "anatomy.  The arbitrators to be the medical board of the Hospital. Dissertations, accompanied with a sealed envelope containing the name and address of the writer, must be sent on or before the 1st February 1871, to the Superintendent of the Massachusetts General Hospital." 


The award was based on a dissertation until 1949, and the 1953 award was the first to be associated with a lecture.  In recent history, the Warren Triennial Prize has been presented as part of a lectureship by scientists recognized as outstanding in their fields, broadly described as "physiology, surgery, or pathological anatomy."  Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize was first awarded, 25 Warren recipients (*) have been awarded the Nobel.  The Warren Prize and Symposium is held every three years at MGH.

The 2022 Warren Triennial Prize event was held on April 6, 2022.

 
YEAR
RECIPIENT
 TOPIC
2022 Mary-Claire King, PhD Genetic Analysis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer: From Gene Discovery to Precision Medicine and Public Health
2017 James Allison, PhD * Discovery of Immune Checkpoint Blockade Cancer Therapy
2014 Bert Vogelstein, MD Cancer Genomes and the Wars against Cancer
2011
Rudolf Jaenisch, MD
 Stem Cells, Reprograming, Therapy: Promise, Problems, Reality
2011
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD *
 Induction of Pluripotency by Defined Factors
2008
 
Victor Ambros, PhD
 MicroRNA Pathways in Worm Development
Gary Ruvkun, PhD*
 The Roles and Possibilities of Tiny RNAs
2004
 
Andrew  Z. Fire, PhD *
 Structure-based genetic surveillance mechanisms
Craig C. Mello, PhD *
 RNAi and development in C. elegans
2001
 
Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD
 The Human Genome Project and the Future of Medicine
J. Craig Venter, PhD
 The Gateway to a New Era in Science and Medicine
1998
 
Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, PhD *
 Flies and Fishes:  Model Organisms in Developmental Biology
Paul C. Zamecnik, MD
 From Protein Synthesis to Oligonucleotide Therapeutics
1995
 
Leland Hartwell, PhD *
 Cell Cycle Checkpoints in Yeast and Cancer
Stuart L. Schreiber, PhD
 Chemical Approach to Understanding and Controlling Signal Transduction
1992
 
Gerald M. Edelman, MD, PhD *
 The Matter of the Mind:  Brain Glue, Brain Gas, Brain Theory
Erik R. Kandel, MD *
 Genes, Synaptic Plasticity and Memory
1989
 
Thomas R. Cech, PhD *
 Catalytic Mechanism and Structure of a Ribozyme.
Joan A. Steitz, PhD
 Small Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins: Diversity in Form and Function
1986
 
Walter Gehring, PhD

Homeotic Genes and the Genetic Control of Development
H. Robert Horvitz, PhD *

Genes That Control Aspects of Nematode Development
1983
 
J. Michael Bishop, MD *
 Cancer Genes Unveiled
Robert A. Weinberg, PhD
 Role of Oncogenes in Human Carcinogenesis
1980
Philip Leder, MD
 Somatic Instability: A Creative Feature of the Immunoglobulin Genes of Mice and Men.
1980
Susumu Tonegawa, PhD *
 Somatic Reorganization and Diversity of Immunoglobulin Genes
1977
 
Seymour Benzer, PhD
Walter Gilbert, PhD *

Neurogenetics of Behavior in Drosophila

How the Lactose Repressor Recognizes DNA
1974
 
Peter D. Mitchell, PhD *
Efraim Racker, MD
 Proticity and Protonics: The Living Cell's Version of Electricity and Electronics.

Oxidative Phosphorylation and Ion Pumps
1971
 
David Baltimore, PhD *
Howard M. Temin, PhD *
 RNA Dependent DNA Synthesis and RNA Tumor Viruses AND
A Neophyte in Cancer Research
1968
Sydney Brenner, MD, PhD *
 The Future of Molecular Biology
1965
Howard K. Schachman, PhD
 Ultracentrifugal Analysis of the Tertiar-yand Quaternary Structure of Enzymes
1962
George E. Palade, MD *
Keith R. Porter, PhD
  
1959
1959
Francis  H.C. Crick, PhD *
James D. Watson, PhD *
  
1956
 
Arthur Kornberg, MD *
Severo Ochoa, MD *
  
1953
Rene J. DuBos, PhD
  
1949
 
 
Ivan D. Frantz Jr., MD
Mary L. Stephenson, AB
Paul C. Zamecnik, MD
 I.  Studies of Incorporation of Carbon 14 Labeled Compounds into the Proteins of Normal and Neoplastic Tissue.  II.  The Biosynthesis of Carbon 14 Labeled Amino Acids for Use in the Study of Protein Metabolism, with Further Observations on the Mechanism of Peptide Bond Synthesis
1946
 
Lydia E. Brewster, AB
Fritz Lipmann, MD, PhD *
Paul C. Zamecnik, MD
 Studies on Clostridium Welchii Lechithinase.  Part I.  A Manometric Method for Measuring the Activity of the C. Welchii Lecithinase and a Description of Certain Properties of this Enzyme.  Part II.  A Study of the Competition of Lecithin and Antitoxin for C. Welchii Lechithinase
1943
David G. Cogan, MD
V. Everett Kinsey, PhD
Erwin O. Hirsch, BA
  
1940
Hebbel E. Hoff, MD
L.H. Nahum, MD
  
1937
Henry Knowles Beecher, MD
 Physiology of Anesthesia
1934
Norman Eastman Freeman, MD
 Physiology of Gangrene
1931
Henry Knowles Beecher, Medical Student
 Measured Effect of Laparotomy of the Respiration; Effect of Laparotomy on Lung Volume; Effect of Laparotomy and Abdominal Distention on Lung Volume; Method of Measuring Lung Volume in Dogs
1928
 
William B. Castle, MD
Wilmot C. Townsend, MD
 Probable Physiological Significance of Achylia-Gastrica in the Causation of Pernicious Anaemia
1925
John Farquhar Fulton, MD
 Some Aspects of Muscular Contraction
1922
 
Cecil Kent Drinker, MD
Katherine R. Drinker, MD
Charles C. Lund, MD
James Mott Mavor, MD
 
 Circulation in the Mammalian Bone-Marrow, with Especial Refernce to the Factos Concerned in the Movement of Red Blood-Cells from the Bone-Marrow into the Circulating Blood as Dislosed by Perfusion of the Tibia of the Dog and by Injection of the Bone-Marrow in the Rabbit and Cat.

Effect of X-Rays on the Nuclear Division
1919
NO AWARD
  
1916
 
Leonard Findlay, MD
Noel Paton, MD
 The Parathyroids. Tetania Parathyreopriva: Its Nature, Cause and Relations to Idiopathic Tetany
1913
Arrigo Visentini, MD
 Fonction du Pancreas et ses Rapports avec la Pathogenese du Diabeter
1910
George H. Whipple, MD *
 Pathogenesis of Icterus
1907
Aldo Perroncito, MD
 Regeneration dei Nervi
1904
Max Borst, MD
 Neue Experimente zur Frage Nach der Regenerations-fahigkeit des Gehirns
1901
Frederic J. Cotton, MD
 Elbow Fractures in Children. Fractures of the Lower Ends of the Humerus; Lesions and End-Results, and Their Bearing Upon Treatment
1898
Howard A. Lothrop, MD
 Anatomy and Surgery of Frontal Sinus and Anterior Ethmoid Cells
1895
NO AWARD
  
1892
John Strahan, MD
 Rickets
1889
H.A. Hare, MD
Edward Martin, MD
 Practical Studies on the Nervous and Mechanical Government of Respiration, Designed to Determin the Best Methods of Treating Discorders of the Same, More Particularly Tose Produced by Traumatism to the Phrenic Nervers or the Inhalation of Gases
1886
NO AWARD
  
1883
NO ESSAYS OFFERED
  
1880
NO AWARD
  
1877
E.O. Shakespeare, MD
 Healing of Arteries After Ligation
1874
NO AWARD
  
1871
Horatio Wood Jr., MD

Experimental Researchers on the Physiological Action of Nitrite of Amyl