About Atul Gawande
ATUL GAWANDE, M.D., M.P.H. is a surgeon, professor, public health researcher, and author. Dr. Gawande is Director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he practices general and endocrine surgery, and at Harvard School of Public Health, where he is professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
A staff writer at The New Yorker, Dr. Gawande writes with insight and compassion about the practice of modern medicine, and with a keen eye to improving it. In three bestselling books - Complications, Better, and The Checklist Manifesto - Dr. Gawande describes mishaps he encountered as a surgical resident, explores strategies to optimize treatment, and shows how the use of an operating room checklist can profoundly improve patient outcomes.
He has received two National Magazine Awards as well as a MacArthur Fellowship, and he has been named one of the hundred most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy and TIME.
About the Lewis Thomas Prize
Throughout history, scientists and writers have sought to communicate with one another, despite barriers of language and process. The Rockefeller University Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science honors the rare individual who bridges both worlds—whose voice and vision can tell us about science's aesthetic and philosophical dimensions, providing not merely new information but cause for reflection, even revelation. The Lewis Thomas Prize was established in 1993 by the trustees of The Rockefeller University and presented to Lewis Thomas, its first recipient, that year.