Dr. Jane Newburger ’71 earned double honors at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2024. The event, which was held Nov. 16-18 in Chicago, focuses on advancements in cardiovascular science and medicine.
In addition to receiving a Distinguished Scientist Award, Newburger was this year’s recipient of the Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award, which is bestowed on individuals whose academic career has included a record of successful teaching and mentoring of the next generation of faculty researchers, educators, and health care professionals.
“I am truly humbled and deeply grateful to the mentees and colleagues who nominated me for the award,” Newburger says. “There is no greater joy in academics than to watch fellows and junior faculty whom one has mentored develop into leaders in the field and become mentors themselves. It has been a two-way street— my mentees have often taught me as much as I've taught them, and many have surpassed my own achievements.”
Newburger is associate chair for academic affairs in the department of cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Commonwealth Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, where she has been a member of the faculty for 45 years. One of her main areas of research is Kawasaki disease, which mostly affects children under 5 and can cause severe cardiovascular damage.
Ӱֱ was foundational in her life, Newburger says, and not just because she met her husband of 54 years, Peter Newburger HC ’70, at the Freshman Mixer.
“My professors and classmates taught me to think and write clearly” she says, “and gave me the confidence to take on challenges.”