The ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research (formerly the Seymour & Vivian Milstein Award from 1988 – 2020), represents the pinnacle of scientific achievement in interferon and cytokine research since 1988, two years after interferon was first approved for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. Since that time, it has been widely recognized that interferons and the larger class of cytokines play critical roles in the development and progression of many major diseases including cancer, viral diseases such as hepatitis and influenza, and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and lupus.
This Award is bestowed upon a leading biomedical research scientist, who has made outstanding contributions to cytokine & interferon research, either in a basic or applied field. Many laureates have made seminal advancements that have enabled the successful treatment of disease or have the potential to lead to significant health benefits. The award consists of $10,000 (may be split if there is more than one award winner), an invitation to make an oral presentation* during the Opening Ceremony at the annual Cytokines meeting, and a crystal trophy. Winner is not required to be an ICIS member. *Includes usual invited speaker travel reimbursements and complimentary registration.
Nominations for 2027 will open in January.
Dr. Christopher Hunter is selected the 2026 Cytokine Society - Pfizer Award Winner
The Cytokine Society is proud to announce that Christopher Hunter, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and Co-Director of the Institute for Immunology, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Cytokine Society–Pfizer Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research. This is the Society’s most prestigious award, recognizing transformative scientific contributions to the cytokine and interferon fields.
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Past Winners Include:
The Society’s most prestigious honor was jointly awarded to Burkhard Becher, PhD and Francisco J. Quintana, PhD.
Prof. Dr. Becher’s nominator summarized his contributions thusly: Over the last 30 years he has developed a focused program on cytokine biology that has uncovered some of the most fundamental insights into pathways that could be targeted therapeutically to manage chronic inflammation. His work is impactful, reproducible (very important) and continues to lead the field (see recent publications on IL-12 in EAE and IL-23 in the regulation of Treg cells in cancer). For these reasons he is a deserving recipient of the ICIS most distinguished award.
The ICIS awards committee selected Dr. Quintana for his pioneering work on immune regulation. His breakthrough work defined the role of glial cells and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in immunoregulation, identifying fundamental principles while developing unique tools that opened new research fields and guided the development of novel therapeutic approaches for human diseases.
2024 - Yanick J. Crow
Prof. Crow was selected as the 2024 ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research in recognition for his groundbreaking research on Type I Interferonopathies which has revolutionized the fields of basic and clinical immunology with phenomenal clinical and biological implications. Professor Crow is recognized as one of the top three scientists in the field of human inborn errors of immunity and the founder of the rapidly growing and revolutionary field of “Type I interferonopathies,” making him a most deserving recipient for the ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research. MORE DETAILS
2023 - Judy Lieberman
Dr. Lieberman was chosen for the 2023 ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research in recognition of her outstanding discoveries in the field of cytokine biology, applying advances in basic science for understanding, treating and preventing human diseases through her studies on the molecular basis of killing by cytotoxic lymphocytes and pyroptotic cell death by GSDMs, the interplay between cytotoxic lymphocytes and GSDMs, and their joint roles in controlling infection and cancer. MORE DETAILS
2023 - Akihiko Yoshimura
Professor Yoshimura was chosen as the 2022 ICIS-Pfizer Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research, the society’s most prestigious award, in recognition of his outstanding discoveries in the field of cytokine biology that have transformed human medicine. Professor Yoshimura’s ground breaking discoveries have played an important role in inflammation, allergy, autoimmune diseases, and tumor immunity, improving our understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases.
2021 - Jenny Pan-Yun Ting
Professor Ting has been chosen as the 2021 ICIS-Pfizer Award winner in recognition of her outstanding discoveries in the fields of immunology, molecular biology, genomics, and microbiology, and especially for her observations regarding the control of immunity which impact a wide variety of diseases. Dr. Ting, combining her knowledge of cytokine regulation and function with state-of-the-art approaches to unravel the immunologic basis for inflammation in infection,inflammatory diseases and cancer, has elevated world-wide research on interferons and cytokines, most notably through her seminal work in NLRs that in many ways started the field of NOD-like receptor proteins. MORE DETAILS
Milstein Awards Laureates from 1988 – 2020 pictured below.
