International Myeloma Foundation co-founder and president, Susie Durie, and Chairman Brian Durie were awarded a joint honorary doctorate for scientific excellence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel at a ceremony in Brussels.
Honorary doctorates were also bestowed upon Swedish statistician Hans Rosling (given posthumously), French mathematics historian Karine Chemla, Belgian pioneering mathematician Freddy Van Oystaeyen, American mathematician and champion of better STEM education Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, Dutch physicist and science communicator Robbert Dijkgraaf, and political cartoonist Gerard Alsteens.
The university praised what its leadership called Durie’s “extraordinary” merit: “He is at the foundation of the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities, which have led to a significant increase in life expectancy following the diagnosis of multiple myeloma.” Together with Susie Durie, they founded the IMF “to inform patients and to involve them in the knowledge about their illness, but also to encourage doctors worldwide to work together to develop best practice guidelines.”
