The 2022 ACR Awards of Distinction

During ACR Convergence 2022 in early November, the ACR honored a group of individuals who have made significant contributions to rheumatology research, education and patient care by announcing the recipients of the ACR’s 2022 Awards of Distinction, as well as the 2022 ACR Masters, recognized for their contributions to the field. See the November issue for the 2022 ACR Distinguished Fellows, the ARP Merit Award and the ARP Master recipients. 

Presidential Gold Medal

Gold Medal is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in rheumatology over an entire career. This year’s award went to Betty Diamond, MD, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Maureen and Ralph Nappi Professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y., and professor of molecular medicine and medicine and director of the PhD and MD-PhD programs at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University/Northwell, Hempstead, N.Y.

“I am deeply honored by this award,” says Dr. Diamond. “My professional career has always been guided by both my passions and my principles. I cannot adequately convey how moved I am to realize that others recognize and value these traits. It is lovely.” 

Dr. Diamond received her undergraduate education at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass., and her medical training at Harvard Medical School, Boston. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, New York City, before moving to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, for a post-doctoral fellowship in immunology.

She has spent her career studying systemic lupus erythematosus, focusing on the induction and pathogenicity of anti-DNA antibodies. Her laboratory provided the first evidence that autoantibodies can arise through somatic mutation and do so routinely during a protective immune response to microbial antigens. The laboratory also made the serendipitous observation that a subset of anti-DNA antibodies cross-reacts with the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor on excitatory neurons and, based on this observation, provided the first mechanistic model for neuropsychiatric lupus. 

Dr. Diamond has served on the ACR Ethics Committee, the Annual Meeting Planning Committee and on the Board of Directors. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and served as a former president of the American Association of Immunologists. 

She is most proud of her efforts to advocate for women in science and medicine throughout her career, and of her persistence, and the persistence of many others, in encouraging the ACR to resist publicly the politicization of healthcare.