Boston University Professor Emelia Benjamin to Receive Prestigious Mentorship Award

Dr. Emelia J. Benjamin, professor of medicine at Boston University, will receive the 2025 Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2025. The award recognizes individuals with sustained excellence in teaching and mentoring the next generation of faculty researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals. This honor acknowledges Dr. Benjamin's lasting impact on cardiovascular care and research through her extensive mentoring of residents and fellows.

Dr. Benjamin holds the Jay and Louise Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine position at the BU Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and serves as professor of epidemiology at the BU School of Public Health. She has developed and led ongoing faculty development programs that support early- and mid-career clinicians and researchers from diverse backgrounds. Her leadership extends to directing multi-institutional research fellowships supported by the Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, including an ongoing international atrial fibrillation genetics fellowship and an NIH K12 program, Boston University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health.

The significance of Dr. Benjamin's mentorship is reflected in the success of her trainees, many of whom received NIH Career Development Awards and launched numerous careers in cardiovascular research. Her NIH-funded research has focused on atrial fibrillation, mobile health, inflammation, and chronic pain, and she has served as principal investigator or co-investigator for NIH-funded trials continuously since 1998. Through her numerous roles for the Heart Association, Dr. Benjamin has been a strong advocate for early-career scientists, including serving as former chair of the Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology to develop a strong Early Career Committee.

Dr. Stacey E. Rosen, the American Heart Association's 2025-2026 volunteer president, emphasized Dr. Benjamin's impact, stating her commitment to training diverse and talented early career professionals continues to shape the future of cardiovascular science and medicine. Dr. Benjamin's career achievements include several of the Heart Association's highest awards: a Distinguished Scientist Award (2022), the Gold Heart Award (2016), the Population Research Prize (2016), the Paul Dudley White Award (2015), and multiple mentoring awards recognizing her work supporting women and people from diverse backgrounds in cardiovascular science.

As an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, Dr. Benjamin has received national recognition for her excellence in research, education, service, and mentoring. She was honored with the Dr. Daniel D. Savage Memorial Science Award from the Association of Black Cardiologists for her impactful research in atrial fibrillation epidemiology and recognized with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine's Diversity and Inclusion Award for her advocacy and leadership in equity and inclusion. Her formal mentorship has extended to more than 60 faculty members and trainees, many securing independent research funding and faculty positions worldwide.

Dr. Benjamin's contributions extend beyond mentoring to significant research leadership. She serves as a leading investigator with the Framingham Heart Study, the breakthrough research project that identified many major risk factors for heart disease, and has authored more than 800 peer-reviewed publications focusing on the genetics, epidemiology, clinical outcomes, and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Her leadership roles include co-chairing the 2008 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Atrial Fibrillation Prevention Workshop and contributing to the 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation. Additional information about the American Heart Association can be found at https://www.heart.org.