Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer

The 2020 winner was the late Dr. Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician. He was a leader in the development of public anthropology, as well as in improving health care for the world’s poorest people. He held both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. He chaired the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard, and was a founding director of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He also was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer was the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association’s Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Awarded to Dr. Paul Farmer for Advancements in Global Public Health Equity