The School of Medicine conferred its most prestigious award, the Dean’s Medal, to three recipients last Monday, Oct. 24. Sean Parker, Ann Arvin M.D. and John Levin were all recognized in a School of Medicine press release for their contributions in solving health problems.
According to the press release, the Dean’s Medal “honors individuals who have made scientific, medical, humanitarian, public service or other contributions that have significantly advanced the mission of the school.”
Lloyd Minor M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, commended the recipients for having “dedicated their lives, skills and resources to helping solve some of our era’s hardest health problems.”
Parker, who was also the co-founder of Napster and the first president of Facebook, was one of the three recipients, recognized for his philanthropic work in the field of biomedical research. As the current president of the Parker Foundation, which just announced a grant of $250 million to create the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, he expressed his appreciation for the medal while insisting that the real heroes were the actual researchers in the Institute. In 2014, the Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Parker as fifth on its “Philanthropy 50” list for earlier medical research funding.
Arvin, a professor of pediatrics and the University’s vice provost and dean of research, was also awarded the medal for her work. Arvin’s career has centered on finding cures to infectious diseases in children. Her work contributed to the development of vaccines for chicken pox and shingles.
Arvin has been vice provost of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford since 2006, and despite having won a variety of prior awards for her work, she was still “literally speechless when she received the call from [Dean] Minor notifying her that she would be recognized with the school’s highest honor,” according to the press release.
Levin, current chair of the Stanford Health Care board of directors as well as member of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford board of directors, was the third recipient. Levin was first a part of the Stanford School of Education before graduating with a Stanford law degree in 1973 and going on to found the San Francisco law firm Folger Levin LLP with a fellow Stanford graduate.
More recently he served as co-chair of the Campaign for Stanford Medicine. Levine said that he “views both teaching and law as a service — a way to impact society and help others, as well as to create opportunities and solve problems.”
Contact Brian Contreras at brianc42 ‘at’ stanford.edu.