The Society for Endocrinology, the major British society representing scientists, clinicians and nurses who work with hormones, will honor Samuel Refetoff, professor of medicine, pediatrics and genetics, with the prestigious 2011 Society Award for his “exceptional contribution to thyroid research.”
Refetoff will deliver the British Thyroid Association Pitt-Rivers lecture, entitled “An expanded view on resistance to thyroid hormone,” on April 13 at the annual Joint British Endocrine Societies Meeting in Birmingham. The Pitt-Rivers lecture was founded in 1983 in memory of Prof. Rosalind Pitt-Rivers, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to thyroidology, and particularly in the discovery of triiodothyronine.
Refetoff specializes in congenital and inherited thyroid diseases. His laboratory work focuses on identifying genetic errors that cause defects in thyroid hormone regulation, synthesis, transport and action. He has described several genetic diseases of the thyroid, including resistance to thyroid hormone (known as Refetoff’s syndrome). He and colleagues have one of the largest referral centers for genetic thyroid disease in the world.
His former colleague, Leslie DeGroot, professor emeritus of medicine, received the award in 1991.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
