The second Director of the University of Wisconsin Department of Pharmacy and the first Dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, Edward Kremers was instrumental in the development of modern university-based pharmacy education.
Kremers also firmly believed that humanistic and historical research and knowledge benefited professional and scientific disciplines. As early as 1892, he argued,
In our utilitarian and materialistic age, too little attention is given to history even in the academic courses of our colleges and universities. The professional student should at least have a fair knowledge of the history of his profession.
Twenty years later, in the introduction to his Bibliographic Guide for Sutdents of the History of Pharmacy, Kremers explained that,
Appreciating the broadening effort which even a cursory study of the history of pharmacy students must have on their necessarily technical course of education, the writer has always sought to interest his students in the evolution of their calling.
The Edward Kremers Award honors Prof. Kremers’ pioneering research in the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals and recognizes scholars who continue to bridge the divisions between the humanities and the health sciences.
Prior to 2020, the Edward Kremers Award was conferred upon a citizen of the United States for an original and scholarly publication, or a single series of interrelated publications, appearing anywhere in the world and pertaining primarily to historical or historico-social aspects of pharmacy (including the history of the material media). Evaluation was based on the competence of the research and on the skill of interpretation and presentation. The AIHP Board of Directors adopted the current protocol for the Kremers Award in August 2020.
2024 – Zachary Dorner
For: Merchants of Medicines The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century
Watch the 2024 Edward Kremers Award Lecture here on our YouTube page.
2022 – Paula De Vos
For: Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy from the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain
2019 – Alain Touwaide
For: Commentary volume on Tractuatus de Herbis.
2012 – Jeremy Greene
For: Prescribing by the Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease.
2010 – Dennis Worthen
For: Pharmacy in World War Two.
2008 – John Lesch
For: The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs Transformed Medicine.
2006 – Arthur Daemmrich
For: Pharmacopolitics: Drug Regulation in the United States and Germany.
2004 – Robert Buerki
For: The Search of Excellence: The First Century of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
2002 – Renate Wilson
For: Pious Traders in Medicine: A German Pharmaceutical Network in Eighteenth-Century North America
2001 – Michael Flannery
For: John Uri Lloyd: The Great American Eclectic.
1998 – Rima Apple
For: Vitamania: Vitamins in American Culture.
1995 – Gregory J. Higby
For: In Service to American Pharmacy: The Professional Life of William Procter, Jr.
1993 – Clifford M. Foust
For: Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug.
1990 – Nydia M. King
For: A Selection of Primary Sources for the History of Pharmacy in the United States.
1989 – John Swann
For: Academic Scientists and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Cooperative Research in Twentieth-Century America.
1982 – John Scarborough
For: A series of interrelated articles on the history of material medica and toxicology in classical antiquity, especially: “Gnosticism, Drugs, and Alchemy in Late Roman Egypt” in Pharmacy in History; ‘The Drug Lore of Asclepiades of Bithynia” in Pharmacy in History; “Nicander’s Toxicology I: Snakes” in Pharmacy in History; “Nicander’s Toxicology II: Spiders, Scorpions, Insects, and Myriapods” in Pharmacy in History; and “Theophrastus on Herbals and Herbal Remedies” in Journal of Historical Biology.
1981 – Robert G. Mrtek
For: A series of articles on the history of pharmaceutical education. AIHP cited as particularly exemplary of Dr. Mrtek’s skills of writing and interpretation his publication, “Pharmaceutical Education in These United States: An International Historical Essay of the Twentieth Century” in American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
1980 – John Parascandola
For: His pioneering and expert series of articles on the history of chemical pharmacology.
1979 – John M. Riddle
For: Marbode of Renne’s (1035-1123) De Lapidibus considered as a Medical Treatise, with text Commnentary and C.W. King’s Translation, Together with text and Translation of Marbode’s Minor Works on Stones.
1978 – Allen G. Debus
For: For his publications on the contributions of Paracelsus and the Paracelsians to pharmacy and drug therapy.
1976 – George A. Bender
For: Recognition of his contribution to the general history of pharmacy, his evaluation of certain areas of American pharmaceutical industry and research and for his untiring efforts in the editing of Pharmacy in History since 1965. Works of particular note are: Great Moments in Pharmacy, 2nd edition; Parke-Davis at One Hundred; and “Great Moments in 18th-Century Science,” Arizona Quarterly.
1974 – David F. Musto
For: The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control.
1972 – William H. Helfand
For: The pharmaco-historical aspects of his series of publications related to collecting and interpreting art prints with associations in pharmacy and medicine, including; “A Pictorial Essay: Medicine and the Arts” in Brittanica Yearbook of Science and the Future; Drugs and Pharmacy in Prints: An Exhibition of Prints and Drawings; and “A Classification Method for Illustrative Pharmaceutical Material” in Pharmacy in History.
1971 – Charles O. Jackson
For: Food and Drug Legislation in the New Deal.
1970 – Jerry Stannard
For: His research into the difficult areas of the identity, importance, and use of drugs by the ancient Greeks, as exemplified by his publication on “Hippocratic Pharmacology” in Bulletin of the History of Medicine.
1969 – George Griffenhagen
For: Tools of the Apothecary.
1968 – Martin Levey
For: The Awards Committee of the Institute made special reference to his Medical Formulary of Al-Kindi and Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi.
1967 – Ernst W. Steib
For: Drug Adulteration: Dissection and Control in Nineteenth-Century Britain.
1966 – Sami K. Hamarneh
For: Meticulous scholarship and important revisionary interpretations concerning the history of pharmacy in Islamic culture. As exemplifying this contribution, the Committee on Awards cited “The Rise of Professional Pharmacy in Islam” published in Medical History.
1965 – David L. Cowen
For: Professor Cowen had demonstrated an impressive scholarship and rare talent for creative bibliographic research, culminating in his study, America’s Pre-Pharmacopoeial Literature. Previously he had distinguished himself through his scholarly publications dealing with the Edinburgh Dispensatories, the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, and the Boston editions of Nicholas Culpepper. Professor Cowen has also shed new light on early pharmaceutical regulation in American, on the history of pharmacy in New Jersey, and has produced significant publication on the status of pharmacy in the English navy during the 18th century.
1964 – Glenn Sonnedecker
For: Significant revision and rewriting of Kremers and Urdang’s History of Pharmacy.
1963 – Alex Berman
For: “The Scientific Tradition in French Hospital Pharmacy,” American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy; along with a series of papers on the history of hospital formulary. The Committee also recognized the significance of the author’s historical research and publications on the medico-botanical movement in the United States.
1962 – James Harvey Young
For: Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in American Before Federal Regulation
