2010 Jim King Leadership AwardClaes Wahlestedt, MD, Ph.D.
The award is named after Senator King, who introduced Senate Bill 2558 that led to the creation of the Florida Biomedical Research Program. The program was later renamed in honor of his parents as the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program. The Senator Jim King Leadership Award is presented to an individual who has made outstanding efforts to expand and enhance Florida's Biomedical Research Enterprise and expedite cures. "Dr. Wahlestedt is an exemplary person to receive this award; not only is he a top researcher, but through numerous activities outside the lab he has dedicated himself to helping Florida advance as a major center for biomedical research", said Dr. Mike Devine, Executive Director of FL CURED. |
About the Jim King Leadership AwardFL CURED is in large part about ideals: striving to make Florida a leader in biomedical research, expediting cures, working towards improved coordination of efforts, improving communication amongst researchers and institutions, encouraging collaboration, improving translation of findings into clinical practice, and aligning resources -- all to reduce human suffering from the deadly and disabling diseases that affect Floridians. Such high callings take leadership, and leadership begins with vision. Because FL CURED is about ideals, the Jim King Leadership Award was established to honor individuals who exemplify its high calling through leadership, vision, and a lifetime of commitment. Senator Jim King showed immense leadership, particularly in championing the life sciences and biomedical research in Florida. FL CURED emerged in 2004 following an Interim Report on State Funded Medical Research authorized by then Senate President Jim King. As a freshman Senator in 1999, King introduced Senate Bill 2558 that led to the creation of the Florida Biomedical Research Program; later renamed in honor of his parents as the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program. Thus it is fitting the first FL CURED award be named the Senator Jim King Leadership Award. |
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Claes Wahlestedt, MD, Ph.D. professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Therapeutics at the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute, was awarded the Senator Jim King Leadership Award from FLCURED, Florida's Center for Universal Research to Eradicate Disease, at the BioFlorida conference in Ft. Lauderdale, October 26, 2010. 
