Prize for Achievement

Joseph Wolfsdorf

2025 ISPAD Achievemnt Prize Winner, United States of America

Professor Joseph Wolfsdorf graduated in 1969 from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa, and received the South African Medical Association Bronze Medal "for the most distinguished graduate in the Faculty of Medicine". After a completing an internship in medicine and surgery at Johannesburg’s Non-European Hospital, he trained in Pediatrics at Baragwanath Hospital and the Transvaal Memorial Hospital for Children, both in Johannesburg. He obtained a Fellowship of the College of Physicians (FCP) of South Africa and was awarded the Robert McDonald Medal for the most outstanding candidate in the examination for the Fellowship of the College of Physicians of South Africa with Pediatrics for the year 1974.

In 1975, he emigrated with his family to the USA and pursued training in pediatric endocrinology at the University of Chicago and subsequently at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.

In 1982, he joined the Division of Endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he served as Director of the Diabetes Program for 35 years. From 1986 to 1997, he was also Chief of Pediatrics at Joslin Diabetes Center and Medical Director of the Pediatric Diabetes Treatment Unit at New England Deaconess Hospital and was a member of the Joslin Diabetes Center's Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) research team from 1984 to 1993.

He served as Clinical Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Boston Children’s Hospital for two periods (1994 to 1998 and 2006 to 2016). From 1998 to 2002, he was Chief of the Charles A. Janeway Medical Firm and Director of Ambulatory Programs for the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2010, he was awarded the Boston Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Endocrinology.

In 2006, he was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and has been a member of the HMS Pediatric Executive Committee since 2017. 

Dr. Wolfsdorf is the author of over 280 publications and has edited and contributed to five monographs and textbooks. He is a member of the editorial board of Diabetes Care and is an Associate Editor for Hormone Research in Pediatrics and is the pediatric endocrinology section editor for topics related to diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia in UpToDate. 

Dr. Wolfsdorf remains actively engaged in the practice of pediatric endocrinology and the training of pediatric endocrinology fellows. He is a Past President of ISPAD.

Silva Arslanian

2024 ISPAD Prize for Achievemnt, United States of America

Silva Arslanian, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. She holds the Richard L. Day Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (UPMC CHP). She is the Director of the Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Center of the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Institute CTSI) and Director of the Center for Pediatric Research in Obesity & Metabolism at the UPMC CHP.

Dr. Arslanian obtained her medical degree and completed her pediatric residency training at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the UPMC CHP under the tutelage of ISPAD Founding Member and Prize Winner the late Allan Drash M.D.

Dr. Arslanian has been and continues to be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Research Foundations, Department of Defense, and Pharmaceutical Companies. Her research focus is insulin sensitivity and beta cell function during childhood growth and development in health and disease (type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, obesity, cardiometabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome), racial disparities in metabolism and the risk of obesity, and pharmacotherapeutic advances in youth obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her patient-oriented research provided breakthroughs in discerning the pathophysiology of youth type 2 diabetes, the rapid deterioration in b-cell function and therapeutic options. She was a key player in landmark trials, TODAY (Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth), RISE (Restoring Insulin SEcretion) and obesity-targeted pharmacotherapies. She is internationally recognized for her work and has served the national and international scientific communities in various educational and advisory capacities, including her participation as faculty in multiple ISPAD Science Schools and being on the editorial board of several scientific journals. Dr. Arslanian was fortunate to work with bright and devoted M.D. and Ph.D. trainees, colleagues, and collaborators who collectively advanced the field of childhood type 2 diabetes.  

Dr. Arslanian has more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and 66 invited reviews or chapters with an h-index 90 and i10-index 240. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the American Diabetes Association 2023 Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research for her seminal contributions in advancing scientific discoveries in youth type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and beta cell function. One of Dr. Arslanian’s greatest life achievements is her two children and 4 grandchildren, the source of her joie de vivre.