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SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology)

The SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology) was first awarded in 2008.  This award honors a Full, Emeritus, or Retired Full member of the Society of Toxicology (i.e., not limited to Founding members of SOT) who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision-making through the development and/or application of state-of-the-art approaches that elucidate, with a high degree of confidence, the distinctions for humans between safe and unsafe levels of exposures to chemical and physical agents.

The recipient of the 2021 SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology) will be recognized during the Awards Ceremony as part of the 2021 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.

Making a Nomination

The deadline to submit a nomination is October 9, 2020. Nominations should include both a primary and a secondary letter of nomination from Full members of the Society that provide in layman’s terms an analysis of the nominee’s significant contributions to toxicology and how they apply to the award criteria. The strongest nomination packages include two letters that are distinct from one another to offer more detailed support of the candidate’s qualifications. Nomination packages that include very similar letters of nomination offer less information than those that include recommendations that are varied in content. Letters of nomination should be specific and descriptive while also maintaining a level of concision. The Awards Committee will review only the two letters required to complete the nomination; no additional letters will be considered.

Nominations also should include the nominee’s up-to-date CV. For national SOT Awards, such as the Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology), the Awards Committee requires a standardized length for CVs included in nomination packages. CVs must be a maximum of 10 pages in length and should highlight the candidate’s most significant professional accomplishments as they relate to the criteria for the award. Awards Committee members are required to review only 10 pages of each CV; therefore, submitting a longer CV does not strengthen an award nomination.

For more information on making a nomination, please review the “Awards Review Process and FAQs” web page of the SOT website. Please direct any inquiries to SOT Headquarters.

This is an opportunity to honor your colleagues for their outstanding accomplishments; you are encouraged to submit your nominations by October 9.

Spotlight on the 2020 SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology) Recipient Sidney Green, PhD, ATS

Through his more than 50 years as a practicing toxicologist, Dr. Green has made major contributions to academia, industry, and government for which he earned the 2020 SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology).

Dr. Green joined the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) as a pharmacologist in 1965, after spending several years in industry. He received his PhD in biochemical pharmacology from Howard University in 1972. Through various roles at US FDA— most recently as Director of the Division of Toxicological Research—Dr. Green contributed to safety decision-making by ensuring appropriate research information was available to facilitate the development of regulatory guidelines used to establish safe versus unsafe exposure levels for chemical and physical agents that humans encounter daily. His efforts as the Agency’s chief spokesperson in the area of alternative tests contributed significantly to the establishment of the Interagency Regulatory Alternatives Group, which set the stage for the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods.

Dr. Green’s contributions to safety decision-making continued through his role at the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), where he served as Chief of the Toxic Effects Branch, Health Review Division, in the Office of Toxic Substances. In this role, he and other members of the branch represented US EPA on many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) scientific panels responsible for developing toxicological guidelines for the testing of materials by OECD members. He also chaired the US EPA GeneTox Committee, the charge of which was to review the status of most of the methods used in genetic toxicology. 

Joining Covance Inc. as Director of the Department of Toxicology in 1995, Dr. Green was charged with ensuring the appropriateness of studies in multispecies for generating data to support safety-of-use requirements for designated products as part of the premarket approval process. Then, in 1998, Dr. Green joined Howard University College of Medicine as an Adjunct Associate Professor of pharmacology, a position he continues to hold.

Dr. Green also served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Toxicity Testing. He was a member of the committee, the efforts of which resulted in the 2007 publication of Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, which has been instrumental in changing how toxicologists think about the approach to safety evaluation. In addition, Dr. Green has authored more than 70 publications, primarily on topics involving genetic toxicology, short-term test methodology, and policy issues associated with alternatives to animal testing.

Dr. Green has been actively involved in SOT since 1974 in appointed, elected, and volunteer capacities. His service includes positions on Council, as Chair of the Membership Committee, and as President of several Component Groups. In addition to service to SOT, Dr. Green is a Past President of the American College of Toxicology, Association of Government Toxicologists, and Academy of Toxicological Sciences.