Hilary Koprowski, director of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, recently was presented with the Philadelphia Award, also referred to as "Philadelphia's Nobel Prize."
The annual $25,000 award, originated in 1921 by publisher Edward W. Bok, who died in 1930, is given by a board of trustees established in Bok's will. The honor recognizes outstanding achievement in the Philadelphia area. Previous winners include the Rev. Leon Sullivan and orchestral conductors Eugene Ormandy and Leopold Stokowski.
Born in Warsaw, Koprowski, 73, is best known for his work in helping to develop vaccines for rabies and polio. He has been the director of the Wistar Institute, the nation's oldest independent biomedical research center, since 1957.
Koprowski says that he will donate the prize money to the Wistar Institute. "The prize is not really for myself, but for my colleagues," says Koprowski, also professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania.
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