The winner of the IOF President’s Award 2024 was Professor Ebeling AO FAHMS, endocrinologist and Head of the Department of Medicine, and Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Professor Dawson-Hughes is Director, Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, and Senior Scientist and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, was presented with the IOF President’s Award at the WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2023 Congress in Barcelona.

A special IOF President’s Award was also presented to European Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in recognition of her support of the IOF Lift off For Bone Health campaign and her commitment to bone health awareness.

The IOF President’s Award was presented to Professor René Rizzoli, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University Hospitals of Geneva, on the occasion of the virtual Congress WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2022.  Prof. Rizzoli has served IOF as an ex-officio member of the IOF Founding Board Executive Committee, as the Chair of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors until 2006 and as IOF Treasurer since 2007.

The IOF President’s Award was presented to Dr Philippe Halbout, Ph.D. on the occasion of the virtual Congress WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2021. Dr Halbout is Chief Executive Officer of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, and former IOF Executive President, with a more than 15-year career background in osteoporosis-related research and development.

Professor Maria-Luisa Brandi (Italy), Dr Lee Joon-Kiong (Malaysia) and Professor Ego Seeman (Australia) were presented with the IOF President’s Award at the virtual WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2020 in recognition of their longstanding and extraordinary contributions to the advancement of IOF programmes and to the bone field.

Dr Radmila Matijevic (ASTAS, Serbia) and Dr Greg Lyubomirsky (Osteoporosis Australia) received the award in 2019 at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases held in Paris, France in April 2019. 

Hans Peter Dimai, Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, was presented with award at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Krakow, Poland in April 2018. Professor Dimai is a distinguished leader in the osteoporosis and bone field who has made longstanding contributions to IOF and its international programmes, most notably the IOF-ISCD Osteoporosis Essentials training course. As a member of IOF’s scientific committee and through his dedication to advancing healthcare professional education within Austria and in the German-speaking countries, he has contributed significantly to the IOF mission to foster education and training in the musculoskeletal field.

These prestigious awards were presented at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Florence, Italy. The winners were:

• ASIA-PACIFIC – Kerrie Sanders (Australia)
• LATIN AMERICA – Jorge Morales Torres (Mexico)
• MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA – Leith Zakraoui (Tunisia)
• NORTH AMERICA  – David Kendler (Canada)
• EASTERN EUROPE  – Vidmantas Alekna (Lithuania), Marija Tamulaitiene (Lithuania)
• WESTERN EUROPE  – Stefan Goemaere (Belgium)

The awards were presented at the IOF-ESCEO World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Malaga, Spain. The winners were:

• ASIA – Dr Ambrish Mithal (India)
• LATIN AMERICA – Prof. Patricia Clark (Mexico)
• MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA – Prof. Leith Zakraoui (Tunisia)
• NORTH AMERICA  – Dr Famida Jiwa (Canada)
• OCEANIA – Paul Mitchell (New Zealand)
• EASTERN EUROPE  – Prof. Andrea Ildikó Gáspárik (Romania)
• SOUTHERN EUROPE  – Prof. Jorge B. Cannata Andia (Spain)
• WESTERN EUROPE  – Prof. Thierry Thomas (France)

The awards were presented at the IOF-ESCEO World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Milan, Italy. The winners were:

• ASIA-PACIFIC – Prof. Liu Zhonghou, China
• EASTERN EUROPE – Prof. Edward Czerwinski, Poland
• LATIN AMERICA – Prof. Cristiano Zerbini, Brazil
• MIDDLE EAST – Dr. Gemma Adib, Syria
• WESTERN EUROPE – Dr. Marius Kraenzlin, Switzerland
• SOUTHERN EUROPE - Dr. Şansin Tüzün, Turkey
• NORTH AMERICA – Dr. Michael McClung, USA

The awards were presented at the IOF-ESCEO World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Seville, Spain. The winners were:

• ASIA-PACIFIC – Prof. Peter Ebeling, Australia
• EASTERN EUROPE – Prof. Olga Lesnyak, Russia
• LATIN AMERICA – Dr Osvaldo Daniel Messina, Argentina
• MIDDLE EAST – Dr Basel Masri, Jordan
• WESTERN EUROPE – Prof. Johann Ringe, Germany
• NORTH AMERICA – Prof. Paul D. Miller, USA

Professor Socrates Papapoulos, a long standing member of the IOF Board and leading researcher at the Leiden University Medical Center, was the recipient of the prestigious Pierre Delmas Award 2013. The award was presented at the European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis in Rome, Italy.

Professor Bess Dawson-Hughes, Director of the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, was named the winner of Pierre  Delmas Award in March 2012. Professor Dawson-Hughes is on the IOF Board of Governance and Committee of Scientific Advisors,  and has been appointed IOF General Secretary.

Professor José Zanchetta, a member of the IOF Board and long standing leader of the IOF Latin American Programme, was the recipient of the prestigious Pierre Delmas Award in 2010. Prof. Zanchetta is a researcher and specialist in osteology and nephrology, and is CEO and Principle Investigator at the Instituto de Investigaciones Metabolicas (IDIM) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Professor Jean-Yves Reginster of Belgium, a founding member of the IOF and IOF General Secretary from 1998 to 2007, was awarded the prestigious Pierre Delmas Award in 2008. The award was presented by Professor Cyrus Cooper, Chair of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors, at an award ceremony held on at the opening of the ECCEO9-IOF Meeting in Athens in 2009. Prof. Reginster is a well know researcher who has been instrumental in the creation and growth of IOF, placing his great expertise in the service of IOF and the osteoporosis community as a whole.

The first winner of this prestigious award was Dr. Ghassan Maalouf, IOF Board member at the time. When presenting the award, Professor Pierre Delmas (at the time IOF President) noted, "Dr. Ghassan Maalouf has worked tirelessly to broaden the membership of the IOF. He has been one of the most active members of the IOF Board and is a rare individual able to bring together members of patient societies, scientists and policy makers." Dr. Maalouf is an orthopaedic surgeon at Saint George Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon.