Wisconsin Biohealth Awards

In 2015, BioForward launched the tradition of recognizing, on an annual basis, scientific and business achievements in the biohealth and life science industry. In the fifth year of the awards, BioForward is excited to continue recognizing this leadership and innovation that has brought Wisconsin to be among the top leaders in integrated health solutions.

As we look to the future, we reflect back on the successes that have brought Wisconsin to be among the leaders in biomedical research and development. See Past Awardees

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2019 Hector F. DeLuca Scientific Achievement Award

Dr. Thomas “Rock” Mackie

Thomas “Rock” Mackie is the Chief Innovation Officer at UW Health and the Director of the Isthmus Project, an innovation and commercialization initiative of UW Health and University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. A native of Canada, Rock came to the UW-Madison in 1987 and became a full professor in 1998 in the Department of Medical Physics. He has been a UW Professor Emeritus since 2012 and an Emeritus Investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research since 2015. Rock Mackie has co-founded several not-for-profit and for-profit organizations including the Center for the Assessment of Radiological Sciences, the Advocacy Consortium for Entrepreneurs, Geometrics Corporations, TomoTherapy, HealthMyne, Asto CT, OnLume, and Linectra. He is also a board member of Shine Medical Technologies and BioIonix.

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2019 Wisconsin Biohealth Business Achievement Award

Laura Johnson Douglass

Laura Johnson Douglass founded and serves as President and CEO of both Eufaeria Biosciences and Next Generation Clinical Research. Ms. Douglass is a Founding Director of SbBancorp, Inc. and Settlers bank. She is also involved as a board member at Odonate Therapeutics, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, and several other biotech companies as a business advisory board member. Previously, Ms. Douglass has held roles as Director of Clinical Operations at Hazleton Laboratories (now Covance) and Director of Clinical Affairs & Research at Bone Care International (now Sanofi Genzyme). In 2008 and 2010, she was honored as a biotech entrepreneur by the national organization, Women in Bio, and in 2008 received the Rising Star Award by the Wisconsin Biotech and Medical Device Association.

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