Awards

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EOPH Award in Honor of Margaret Becklake

Meet the 2022 Winner - Babatunde Awokola, D, MPH, MRes, FWACP, ATSF

 Babatunde Ishola Awokola, MD, MPH, MRes, FWACP, ATSF

Dr. Awokola was a joint award recipient for the study of COPD knowledge and practice among GPs and Pulmonologists in West Africa.

In addition, Dr. Awokola has coordinated a team of 15 exposure scientists to complete a one-year longitudinal fine-particulate matter measurement in 11 cities spread across 8 sub-Saharan African countries.


Description:

Margaret Becklake (May 27, 1922-October 17, 2018) grew up and studied medicine in South Africa, and, after postgraduate training in London, returned to her native country to work at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Miner’s Silicosis Bureau, where she studied the effects of dust inhalation on workers in the gold mines. In 1957 she moved to Montréal where worked at McGill University in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology, the Montreal Chest Hospital, and the Royal Victoria Hospital. Her widely published research on occupational lung disease and both international and socioeconomic lung health disparities brought her international recognition. She received many awards including the Distinguished Achievement Award of the American Thoracic Society. She started a research capacity building program that trained and nurtured young African investigators, a forerunner to the ATS MECOR Program, and she served on the MECOR faculty.  Dr. Becklake was active in the EOPH assembly and was a mentor and role model to researchers and clinicians around the world. 

The Margaret Becklake award will be given annually for the best EOPH abstract involving work done in low and/or middle-income countries or addressing international and/or socioeconomic health disparities. The awardee will be selected by the EOPH Program Committee Chair and Chair-Elect. 


Past Recipients of the Margaret Becklake Award:

2021 - Seyram Kaali, MD
2020 - Karina Romero, MSc, MD
2019 - Kabamba Ngombe, PhD