Top Penn administrator Ezekiel Emmanuel awarded $1 million prize for work in bioethics

Bioethicist Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Penn's Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, has been selected as a 2018 Dan David Prize Laureate.

He will receive the $1 million prize at an award ceremony being held at Tel Aviv University, Israel, on May 6. 

The Dan David Prize, which has existed for 17 years, awards innovative and interdisciplinary accomplishments and research of individuals across the world. Hosted by Tel Aviv University, it aims to promote "excellence, creativity, justice, democracy and progress and to promote the scientific, technological and humanistic achievements," according to its website. 

The prize has three categories — past, present, and future —, and awards $1 million annually to a winner in each category. 

Emanuel, who is the first person to earn the prize for work in bioethics, is being recognized in the Present Time Dimension category. He will share the prize with Baroness Mary Warnock and King's College London professor Jonathan Glover in the Past and Future Time Dimension, respectively.

Emanuel's contributions to bioethics include "end-of-life care, the ethics of research with human participants, the allocation of scarce resources, the physician-patient relationship, and health policy," reported Penn News Today.  

At Penn, Emanuel is a professor in Health Care Management, and Medical Ethics and Health Policy with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School. Currently, he teaches a Health Care Management course that studies issues related to the services sector in the healthcare industry. 

Last year, Emanuel also made the news for creating a gourmet $12 chocolate bar made out of Madagascar cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, and cocoa butter. 

Previously, Emanuel taught at the Harvard Medical School until 1988 when he joined the National Institutes of Health. 

According to his official website, Emanuel has also written and edited nine books and over 200 articles. He is a columnist for The New York Times, a regular contributor to Fox News and has appeared often on television shows including Morning Joe and Hardball with Chris Matthews.

In 2013, Emanuel began teaching online on Coursera to share his experiences and research in brief video lectures on medical ethics and health policy issues for professional development and other academic learners.