ASRM ANNOUNCES THE 2023 ASRM AWARD RECIPIENTS

This award honors a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine who has made exemplary contributions to the field of reproduction during his/her career. Dr. William E. Gibbons is a world-renowned pioneer of reproductive medicine and in vitro fertilization. Over the course of his nearly half-century-long career, he has made exceptional contributions to the field of reproductive biology and infertility and has published more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is a sought-after teacher and mentor and has trained more than 50 REI fellows. Additionally, he has served as the President of ASRM, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI), and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). Dr. Gibbons currently serves as a distinguished Professor Emeritus at Baylor College of Medicine.

ARNOLD P. GOLD FOUNDATION HUMANISM IN MEDICINE AWARD FOR PRACTICING PHYSICIANS
SIGAL KLIPSTEIN, MD

Dr. Sigal Klipstein is a clinician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She practices at InVia Fertility Specialists in Chicago. She completed her residency and fellowship at Harvard University, during which time she was selected to join the Medical Ethics Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Bioethics. In addition to running a clinical practice, she writes and lectures on reproductive ethics, fertility over forty, and oocyte cryopreservation. She formerly chaired the ACOG Committee on Ethics and is currently the Chair of the ASRM Ethics Committee. She feels strongly that her clinical care informs her ethics work and vice versa, and is pleased to be able to unite these two interests as she continues to pursue her clinical and academic careers. Dr. Klipstein is a member of the newly established Donor Conceived People Task Force and has previously contributed to the Embryo Research Task Force for ASRM. She enjoys participating in medical student and resident education in her role as assistant professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
supported by an endowment from Suheil J. Muasher, MD
LEE RUBIN COLLINS, JD

Each year, ASRM honors individuals who have provided distinguished service to ASRM. Recipients are selected based on their scientific, leadership, organizational, political, or societal service contributions to ASRM, reproductive medicine, and/or reproductive medicine patients. Lee Rubin Collins, JD, is known for over two decades of advocacy to make fertility treatment universally accessible and to keep it legal. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she began her career at Ropes & Gray in Boston, one of the country’s preeminent law firms, where she was one of the first women litigators to make partner. Her personal experience of secondary infertility, however, motivated her to change careers and dedicate herself to infertility awareness, equity, and policy change.

Ms. Collins was asked to join the Board of Directors of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association in 2002. In that role, she launched RESOLVE’s advocacy to repel threats to reproductive medicine, first from the President’s Council on Bioethics and then from the growing “embryo-personhood” movement. In 2014, she received RESOLVE’s highest honor, the Barbara Eck Founder’s Award. In 2019, she became the first patient advocate elected to ASRM’s Board of Directors. During her three- year term, her work on the Board Publications Committee inspired a deep interest in issues of research integrity and misconduct. It led her to help found ASRM’s groundbreaking Research Integrity Committee, which she now co-chairs.

Ms. Collins was honored to serve on the ASRM Ethics Committee from 2014-2019, where she contributed in particular to the Society’s first opinions on disparities in access to care and on the ethics of planned oocyte cryopreservation. Ms. Collins previously has served on the boards of The Howard and Georgeanna Jones Foundation, RESOLVE of the Bay State, and the New England Fertility Society. She has numerous publications and presentations on access to care and advocacy, including her TEDx talk, “Infertility and Politics.” She is grateful to ASRM and to the outstanding mentors and friends in this field who gave her the chance to contribute to advancing reproductive justice.

KAVOUSSI FAMILY OUTSTANDING TEACHER AWARD
This award is made possible through an educational endowment from K.M. Kavoussi, MD, Homa Kavoussi, Shahryar Kavoussi, MD, MPH, Mehryar Kavoussi, JD, Parviz Kavoussi, MD, and Austin Fertility & Reproductive Medicine/Westlake IVF.
CLAUDIO A. BENADIVA, MD, ELD, HCLD (ABB)

This award honors an ASRM member who is recognized as an outstanding educator in undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, professional, or patient education in the area of basic and/ or clinical reproductive biology and medicine. Dr. Claudio Benadiva is the Medical Director of the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services. In addition to being a Professor of Ob/Gyn at the University of Connecticut, he is a Fellow of the American College of Ob/Gyn and Board Certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility since 1998. He is among the very few physicians who are certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis as a high complexity laboratory director, making him uniquely suited to integrate both clinical and laboratory protocols in an IVF program. He received the Family Building Award from the American Fertility Association in 2004 and has been awarded “Best Doctor in America” every year since 2001 and the ASRM Star Award yearly since 2012. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1981 and completed his residency in Ob/Gyn at the University of Connecticut Health Center in 1993. He completed a fellowship in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a Clinical Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

Dr. Benadiva has done extensive research in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology and IVF since 1986. His work has resulted in over 85 peer-reviewed articles, 170 abstract presentations and several invited book chapters. He has mentored and trained many residents and generations of REI fellows since 1999. He continues to lecture nationally and internationally, with a special interest in ovulation induction for IVF, PGT, GnRH agonist trigger, and methods for prevention of OHSS.

ASRM DISTINGUISHED RESEARCHER AWARD
SHOUKHRAT MITALIPOV, PHD

This award recognizes an ASRM member who has made outstanding contributions to clinical or basic research in reproduction published during the previous 10 years. Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov earned his MS in reproduction in 1987 and his PhD in Human Genetics in 1994 from the Research Center for Medical Genetics in Moscow. In 1995, he moved to the US and completed a postdoctoral training at Utah State University, and, in 1998, he joined Oregon Health & Science University as faculty. Currently, Dr. Mitalipov is a director of Center for Embryonic and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health & Science University. His research is focused on investigating and developing novel cell and gene therapy approaches in the area of reproductive medicine.

Dr. Mitalipov’s laboratory pioneered the concept of mitochondrial/cytoplasmic replacement therapy (MRT), allowing replacement of defective cytoplasm or mutant mtDNA in patient eggs prior to fertilization. MRT approaches have been initially developed and tested in a nonhuman primate model and more recently extended to clinical trials for treatment of female infertility that resulted in birth of healthy children. MRT was also successfully used to prevent the transmission of pathogenic, maternally inherited mtDNA mutations from mothers to their children. His laboratory is also exploring applications of in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) as a future therapy for infertility. He is also investigating novel gene editing strategies that would allow repairing gene defects in gametes or early preimplantation embryos and thus prevent passage of thousands of heritable genetic disorders from parents to their children.

IRA AND ESTER ROSENWAKS NEW INVESTIGATOR AWARD
supported by an endowment from Zev Rosenwaks, MD
KATE DEVINE, MD

This year, the Ira and Ester Rosenwaks New Investigator Award goes to Kate Devine, MD. This award recognizes a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine who has made outstand­ing contributions to clinical or basic research in reproductive sciences published within 10 years of receiving a doctoral degree or completing residency/postdoctoral/fellowship training. Dr. Devine, a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist, cares for patients in Washington, DC, and has served as Research Director at Shady Grove Fertility since 2014 and as Medical Director and Chief Re­search Officer of USFertility since 2022. She is Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Associate Program Director for the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She supports the research efforts of fellows from 5 USF affiliated fellowship programs.

Dr. Devine serves as Chair of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI) Research Committee, Chair of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) Quality Assurance Committee, and on the Editorial Board of Fertility and Sterility. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, received numerous research grants and awards, and spoken nationally and internationally on the topic of her research, which focuses primarily on endometrial receptivity and optimization of frozen embryo transfer protocols. She has conducted multiple RCTs on this topic, including the Sustain Study, which received the 2018 ASRM Scientific Congress Prize Paper and the Synchrony Study, which was published in JAMA in December of 2022.

She earned her BA from Columbia University and MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed residency at New York Univer­sity Medical Center and fellowship at the NIH.