The Genesis Prize Foundation has announced Dr. Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, as the winner of the 2022 Genesis Prize.

Now in its ninth year, the annual $1 million award honors individuals for professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values. In line with previous laureates, Bourla chose to forgo to the $1 million award and instead direct the monetary prize to projects aimed at preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, with a particular emphasis on the tragedy suffered by the Greek Jewish community.

Bourla was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, and his parents were among only 2,000 survivors out of a once-thriving, ancient Jewish community almost completely wiped out by the Nazis. As the coronavirus pandemic emerged in early 2020, Bourla declined billions of dollars in U.S. federal subsidies to avoid government bureaucracy and expedite development and production of a COVID-19 vaccine, which enabled Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to be ready in record time. Bourla received the largest number of votes during a global campaign in which 200,000 people in 71 countries voted online and was subsequently unanimously endorsed by the Genesis Prize Selection Committee.

The foundation also noted the contributions of numerous Jewish scientists, doctors, and healthcare officials in helping to save lives during the pandemic, specifically highlighting those of Drew Weissman, professor of vaccine research at the University of Pennsylvania; Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer at Pfizer; Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna; Joanne Waldstreicher, chief medical officer at Johnson & Johnson; Alexander Gintsburg, an academician at the Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology; Anatoly Altstein, chief scientist at the Gamaleya Institute; Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Jeffrey Zients, White House coronavirus response coordinator.

“I did not set out to live a public life, and I never could have imagined that I might one day receive the profound honor of the Genesis Prize and stand alongside my extraordinary fellow nominees,” said Bourla. “I accept it humbly and on behalf of all my Pfizer colleagues who answered the urgent call of history these past two years and together bent the arc of our common destiny. I was brought up in a Jewish family who believed that each of us is only as strong as the bonds of our community; and that we are all called upon by God to repair the world. I look forward to being in Jerusalem to accept this honor in person, which symbolizes the triumph of science and a great hope for our future.”

(Photo credit: Joshua Jordan)