PRIM&R Service Award
The PRIM&R Service Award was created by the PRIM&R Board of Directors in 2021 to recognize individuals who have provided significant timely or timeless service to the human subjects protections or animal care and use communities that are at the core of PRIM&R. That service could be in teaching, mentorship, innovation, leadership, engagement, program improvement, or research. The intention of the award is to recognize the many and varied ways that people can have a significant impact on the field—awardees may be recognized for their long-time commitment or for one-time innovations and projects, whether early in their careers or after a lifetime of service.
2022 Jeff Cohen Service Award
Clement Adebamowo, BM, Ch.B Hons, ScD, FWACS, FACS, FASCO
Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Maryland School of Medicine
PRIM&R honors Clement Adebamowo BM, Ch.B Hons, ScD, FWACS, FACS, FASCO with the Jeff Cohen PRIM&R Service Award for 2022.
With great pleasure and immense gratitude for his dedicated service to the human subjects research community, PRIM&R recognizes Clement Adebamowo.
Dr. Adebamowo has devoted his professional life to building research ethics and oversight capacity in Nigeria; he is a pioneer of research ethics, human research protection programs, and institutional review boards in West Africa.
Dr. Adebamowo is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Associate Director (Population Science), Associate Director (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility), and Director (Global Health Cancer Research) Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore. He is also a Research Scientist at the Center for Bioethics and Research, Ibadan, and the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria.
Since 2004, Dr. Adebamowo has received funding from the US National Institutes of Health to develop and provide in-person and online training programs designed to increase the capacity of African collaborators to conduct ethical research and build local infrastructure for the regulation of research. He directs the NIH Fogarty-funded West African Bioethics Training program that provides: Masters and PhD degree programs;
Diploma trainings; short duration in-person and online training programs in research ethics, responsible conduct of research, and related subjects in Nigeria and some West African countries.
Dr. Adebamowo has helped to implement over 150,298 online pieces of training. He continues to advocate for free education and resources for trainees in West Africa and Africa and is a mentor for other bioethics leaders in Nigeria.
In addition, Dr. Adebamowo is a leading voice in global bioethics. He was the founding chair of the Nigerian National Health Research Ethics Committee, serving for ten years. During that time, he worked to develop a comprehensive research ethics regulatory infrastructure and wrote the National Code for Health Research Ethics in Nigeria. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of Research Ethics training programs in Kenya, Myanmar, and Ghana.
Dr. Adebamowo also has a broad and active research portfolio that goes beyond his specialty in cancer epidemiology to encompass projects that enhance research ethics capacity in Africa and address health disparities in the US. Some of his research projects include: studying ethical governance frameworks for data science health research in Africa; the use of indigenous educational concepts to improve comprehension of informed consent in genomics and cancer research in Africa; and optimizing recruitment strategies and study procedures with a focus on African American parents, in clinic-based settings for HPV vaccines.
In the words of the PRIM&R member who nominated Dr. Adebamowo, “we cannot talk about the growth of research ethics in Nigeria, West Africa, and Africa without mentioning Clement.”