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Shilpanjali Jesudaso 

The Roscoe R. Robinson Award acknowledges outstanding achievements in education in nephrology and medicine. This year’s winner, Shilpanjali Jesudason, is head of department and chair of the Clinical Research Group at the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplant Service in South Australia.

Professor Jesudason is the founder and program lead for Pregnancy and Kidney Research Australia and the inaugural chair of the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplantation Registry (ANZDATA) Parenthood Working Group. She helped establish and is co-chair of the ANZ Society of Nephrology Pacific Working Group, having had a strong interest in developing and supporting nephrology in Fiji. She co-leads the ISN Train-the-Trainer Program for Pregnancy and Kidney Disease, a global initiative for expanding obstetric nephrology knowledge through mentoring clinical champions and developing a toolkit of educational resources for the ISN Academy.

From 2017-2020, Professor Jesudason was the clinical director of Kidney Health Australia, the primary body for patients with kidney disease, and remains passionate about consumer partnerships, advocacy, and addressing inequities in kidney health care. In this role, she helped develop Australia’s Strategic Action Plan for kidney disease and the first guidelines for chronic kidney disease management for First Nations Australians.

Professor Jesudason comments, “I was truly surprised and humbled to be nominated and delighted to receive this award. I share this with the wonderful teams with whom I’ve had the privilege to work.”

Professor Jesudason will receive her award during WCN Plenary Session 2 on Friday, February 7, 2025, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. India Standard Time, in the Auditorium Brahmkamal Hall.

 Marie Trudel

The Lillian Jean Kaplan Prize recognizes individuals for excellence and leadership in PKD clinical or basic research whose seminal scientific work has advanced PKD knowledge and treatment. Marie Trudel, from the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada, was awarded the prize for the comprehensive research program she established on autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).

The Trudel laboratory is working on deciphering the cellular and physiologic mechanisms responsible for PKD by developing the most relevant mouse models that closely reproduce human renal and extrarenal ADPKD manifestations. Studies from her team have advanced the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of ADPKD and identified potential therapeutic targets for PKD treatment toward preclinical and clinical investigation.

Professor Trudel joined the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) as the unit director of Molecular Genetic and Development in 1989 and is a professor in the Department of Medicine and Biochemistry at Université de Montréal and adjunct professor at McGill University in Quebec, Canada. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1982 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Biochemistry with Dr. Marianne Grunberg-Manago (president, National Academy of Science) at Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris. She did post-doctoral training with Drs. Mark Meuth and Tomas Lindahl (Nobel Laureate 2015), at Imperial Cancer

Research Fund, London, UK, and with Dr. Frank Costantini at Columbia University, in the US.

Professor Trudel received studentships and fellowships from Foreign Affairs France, the Medical Research Foundation, Paris, the Institut de Recherche en Santé et Sécurité du travail Quebec, the American Leukemia Society, the Centennial Fellowship Medical Research Council of Canada, and scholarships from Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé.

Professor Trudel will receive the prize during the WCN’25 ‘Bridging the Gap: PKD Research and Clinical Care Perspective – Kaplan PKD Session.’ She will deliver a scientific talk and participate in a roundtable with other polycystic kidney disease (PKD) experts at this session on Friday, February 7, from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m.

 Ariela Benigni 

The Alfred Newton Richards Award rewards outstanding basic research in kidney-related fields. This year’s winner, Ariela Benigni, is the scientific secretary and research coordinator at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Bergamo sites, in Italy.

Professor Benigni trained in Strasbourg, London (UK), Boston (US), and Italy. She has held distinguished positions internationally, including senior fellow in obstetric medicine at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. She is currently the Italian delegate of the Horizon Europe Program Committee, Health Cluster 2021-2027.

Professor Benigni’s team identified vasoactive and inflammatory mediators of renal damage in experimental and human progressive renal diseases. Her group is currently looking at therapies to halt renal disease progression or induce kidney regeneration through a multidrug approach and stem cell therapy.

Professor Benigni has published over 350 articles, has acted as associate and academic editor of several international journals, and is currently the editor-in-chief of Nephron. She has served on program committees for international nephrology meetings, received many national and international awards, and belongs to the Top Italian Women Scientists group. In addition, she dedicates much of her time to the growth of young scientific investigators.

Professor Benigni will receive her award during WCN’25 Plenary Session 3 on Saturday, February 8, 2025, from 11:45 to 12:45 p.m. India Standard Time in the Auditorium Brahmkamal Hall.

Boucar Diouf was the head of the Nephrology Department at Aristide le Dantec Hospital and chair of nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odontology, at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar Senegal, from their creation until his retirement in 2019. Now Professor Emeritus, Diouf founded the Fellowship Nephrology Diploma in 2004 and the Nephrology Nurse Diploma in 2006. He has helped to train 130 nephrologists, a renal anatopathologist, 2 pediatric nephrologists, and 113 senior nephrology health technicians of Senegalese and other nationalities.

Professor Diouf coordinated the development program for nephrology and kidney failure care at the Senegalese Ministry of Health from 1992-2019. In this position, he created the Association Sénégalaise pour le Traitement par le Rein Artificiel (ASTRA), now the Association Sénégalaise des Hémodialysés et Insuffisants Rénaux du Sénégal (ASHIR) – a patient organization. He also initiated 19 dialysis centers in several Senegalese towns, established a nephrology reference center and peritoneal dialysis unit at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital, and expanded the hemodialysis unit there.

Professor Diouf was a founding member and the first president of the Senegalese Society of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation, launched in 2006. He organized many national and international meetings and CME courses in Dakar. He was president of the African Association of Nephrology (AFRAN) from 2011-13 and led and promoted kidney care in West Africa through various other roles, including serving as a committee and board member of AFRAN, the European Renal Association − European Dialysis and Transplant Association, and the ISN.

Liliana Garneata is an associate professor of nephrology in the Department of Nephrology and Internal Medicine at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy and head of the 1st nephrology department at Dr. Carol Davila Teaching Hospital of Nephrology in Bucharest, Romania.

Professor Garneata graduated from the Faculty of General Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in 1992 and completed her Ph.D. in nephrology in 2001. She obtained an associate professor of nephrology in 2017. She became a senior consultant in nephrology at Dr. Carol Davila Teaching Hospital of Nephrology in 2003 and head of the 1st nephrology department in 2015. She has been the director of the Romanian Renal Registry since 2007.

Professor Garneata’s special interests are nutrition and metabolism in kidney diseases, diabetic nephropathy, epidemiology of CKD, renal anemia, and oral health impairment in CKD.

Professor Garneata comments, “All my colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe and myself, we are honored by this outstanding award. Definitely, it was teamwork!”

Ana María Cusumano is a consultant professor of medicine and director of the Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences Education at CEMIC University Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Professor Cusumano graduated from the National University of Rosario, where she specialized in nephrology. She obtained a Ph.D. in Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She has been a member of the ISN since 1991, serving on the ISN’s council and several committees, including the now-dissolved COMGAN and the Kidney Disease in Disadvantaged Populations Committee.

Within SLANH, Professor Cusumano has worked on various committees and has been involved in the Latin American Dialysis and Transplantation Registry since its creation and as its director from 2000 to 2012. She participates on several committees within the Buenos Aires Renal Association (BARA) and the Argentine Society of Nephrology. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation (published in Spanish by BARA).

Professor Cusumano’s research focuses on the epidemiology and treatment of CKD and kidney failure.

Shahrzad Ossareh has many roles at the Hasheminejad Kidney Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, in Tehran, Iran, including professor of medicine, head of the nephrology and hemodialysis section, and director of the Nephrology and Fellowship Program.

Professor Ossareh is president of the Iranian Society of Nephrology and editor-in-chief of the Iranian Journal of Kidney Diseases. She was chair of the ISN’s Middle East Regional Board from 2019-2021 and a member of the ISN council from 2017-2021.

Lidia Lysenko is a professor in the Internal and Occupational Diseases Department at Sechenov University in Moscow, Russia.

Professor Lysenko was born in Russia in a small town near Moscow. She graduated from the Ivanovo State Medical University in 1960. She subsequently developed as a clinician and researcher at Sechenov University in the clinical department headed by the academician Evgeny Tareev — a Russian nephrology and rheumatology pioneer. She received a doctorate in Medical Sciences in 1987 with her scientific thesis, ‘Cellular and Immune-Inflammatory Reactions in Nephropathies.’

Professor Lysenko is a scientist and clinician with a wide range of research interests in fundamental and clinical nephrology. She made a significant contribution to the understanding of systemic amyloidosis, glomerulonephritis in systemic lupus erythematosus, lymphoproliferative diseases, auto-inflammatory pathology, and cryoglobulinemic vasculitis with kidney involvement, which were important for the advancement of Russian nephrology.

Professor Lysenko is the author of more than 300 scientific publications, several textbooks on nephrology and internal diseases, and guidelines on treating glomerulonephritis and amyloidosis, which are still used to train Russian nephrologists.

In 1991, she and other colleagues were awarded the State Prize for high achievements and fundamental research in nephrology. She was also awarded the medal “For Services to National Healthcare” and continues to promote the education of Russian nephrologists and medical students.

Professor Lysenko states, “I am thrilled to receive this award; it is a great honor for me.”

Everard Barton is the former chief of nephrology at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He is also an Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Nephrology, former chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus, and founder and director of the Caribbean Institute of Nephrology at UWI.

Professor Barton has been director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Social Services since 2006 and governor of the American College of Physicians, Caribbean Chapter, since 2021. He is a consultant for the Renal Outreach Clinics in St. Ann and Manchester, Jamaica. He was the editor-in-chief of the West Indian Medical Journal for over two decades.

Professor Barton created the first nephrology fellowship program in the English-speaking Caribbean through the UWI, which trained many nephrologists, all still working in the Caribbean. He has organized and led annual international conferences on nephrology and hypertension for the past 16 years. He has secured close collaborative arrangements with the University of Michigan, USA, and other US universities to support these conferences and other initiatives, including an ISN Sister Renal Center partnership.

Professor Barton assisted and advised kidney services across the Caribbean. He initiated the visit of charitable missions to the Caribbean on the ‘Arterio-venous Fistula First’ mission and the screening mission for chronic noncommunicable diseases. He also launched the Caribbean Renal Registry and recommended training for both pediatric and adult nephrologists through the ISN Fellowship Program.

Fan Fan Hou is a professor of medicine at the Southern Medical University and chief of the renal division at the Nanfang Hospital in Guangzhou, China. She is director of the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease and the State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research. Professor Hou was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. She served as an ISN council member from 2017-2021, chair of the ISN North and East Asia Regional Board (2019-2021), and executive committee member of KDIGO (2019-2022).

Professor Hou has published hundreds of papers in world-renowned, peer-reviewed journals such as N Engl J Med, JAMA, JAMA Intern Med, Nat Med, Kidney Int, and J Am Soc Nephrol. She won the Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology Young Investigator Award in 1992 and the first prize medal for ISN Fellows in 2001.

Professor Hou states, “I am honored to be awarded the ISN Pioneer Award. I was once an ISN Fellow being trained at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The fellowship training greatly enriched my knowledge and expanded my professional career. I will dedicate the rest of my life to better serving my patients and the society.”

Kriang Tungsanga graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, in 1973. He received postgraduate training as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, US. He returned to the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University as a faculty staff member in the Department of Medicine and gradually ascended to the position of professor of medicine.

Now Professor Emeritus, Tungsanga’s areas of interest include kidney stone disease and CKD early detection and prevention, with particular emphasis on implementing integrated care at a community healthcare level. His previous academic positions were past president of the Nephrology Society of Thailand, the Royal College of Physicians of Thailand, and chair of the Committee for National List of Essential Medicine in the Royal Thai Government (2016-2021). He also serves as the chair of the Ethical Committee for Research in Man at the Ministry of Public Health of the Royal Thai Government. He has published 230 papers in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Amit Gupta is chairman and head of the Department of Nephrology & Renal Transplantation at the Apollomedics Super Specialty Hospital in Lucknow, India. He worked as a faculty member in the Department of Nephrology & Renal Transplantation at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow from August 1987 until his retirement in 2020 as professor and head of department.

Professor Gupta received his nephrology training at the All India Institute Of Medical Science in New Delhi, and advanced training at Guys Hospital in London, UK, and Toronto Hospital in Ontario, Canada.

At SGPGIMS, Professor Gupta started the continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis program in 1993, which became one of the largest peritoneal dialysis programs in India and South Asia. He was president of the Indian Society of Nephrology from 2009-2010 and the Peritoneal Dialysis Society of India from 2004-2005.

Professor Gupta has delivered lectures at national and international conferences and has published 190 articles in indexed journals and 30 book chapters.

Professor Gupta comments, “I am absolutely thrilled, overwhelmed, and humbled to receive this award and would like to express my gratitude to the ISN for selecting me.”