Presentation of the 2008 Morris F. Collen Award to Robert A. Greenes

The American College of Medical Informatics is an honorary society established to recognize those who have made sustained contributions to the field. Its highest award, for lifetime achievement and contributions to the discipline now known more inclusively as biomedical informatics, is the Morris F Collen Award. Dr. Collen's own efforts as a pioneer in the field stand as the embodiment of creativity, intellectual rigor, perseverance, and personal integrity. At most once a year, the College gives its highest recognition to an individual whose attainments have, throughout a career, substantially advanced the science and art of biomedical informatics. In 2008, the College was proud to present the Collen Award to Robert A. Greenes, MD, PhD (Figure 1). ‘Bob’ Greenes, who like Dr. Collen himself was one of the pioneers in biomedical informatics, has had multiple achievements as a physician, computer scientist, researcher, educator, and eloquent spokesperson for the field. His career contributions make him most deserving of the recognition embodied in the Collen Award.Figure 1 Robert A. Greenes, M.D., PhD 2008 Collen Award Recipient.Bob was born on June 17, 1940 in Cleveland, OH. His parents owned a hardware store in the Polish neighborhood where he and his sister grew up. Upon graduation from Cleveland Heights High School, Bob did undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, where he majored in zoology and took a course in computing (Fig 2). He entered Harvard Medical School …