Peggy Battin, PhD recognized with Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Gardner Award

The Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters is pleased to announce the University of Utah’s Margaret P. Battin, PhD as the recipient of the 2017 Gardner Prize.

The Gardner Prize is awarded every spring to recognize the outstanding academic contributions of an individual within the state of Utah and is made possible by the generous support of the Gardner Family. This honor will be awarded at the Annual Conference of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, being held April 7, 2017.

Margaret Pabst Battin, PhD (nicknamed Peggy) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics, at the University of Utah. Because of her extensive research in medical ethics, she has been named as one of the "Mothers of Bioethics" by the Women’s Biotheics Project.

She has been engaged in research on active euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands. She has published books on the ethical issues surrounding suicide, euthanasia, as well as the ethics of religious refusal of medical treatment.

In 1997 she received the University of Utah’s Distinguished Research award, and in 2000, she received the Rosenblatt Prize, the University of Utah’s most prestigious award. She was named Distinguished Honors Professor in 2002-03.

She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, and holds an M.F.A. in fiction-writing and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Irvine. The author of prize-winning short stories and recipient of the University of Utah’s Distinguished Research Award, she has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited some twenty books.

She is currently at work on an historical sourcebook on ethical issues in suicide, a book on world population growth and reproductive rights, and several projects on spinal cord injury.

More about the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Gardner Prize:

The Gardner Prize is due to the generous support of the Gardner Family in memory of John and Olga Gardner and Willard and Viola Gardner Prize. The recipient receives a UASAL medal and $1,000 prize.

It was during the decade of the 1940’s that the Academy began the practice of presenting awards to men and women of special note in Utah’s scholarly community. The first to receive these awards were Leroy Robertson (Music), Brigham Young University; Franklin S. Harris (scientific investigation and education administration), Brigham Young University; Willard Gardner (scientific investigation), Utah State Agricultural College; Lee Green Richards (visual arts), Salt Lake City; Howard R. Driggs (English), New York University (retired); and Moyer Delwyn Thomas (chemistry), U.S. Department of Agricultural Research. Special awards have been made each year since the Academy’s inception.

In 1969, the Willard Gardner Prize was instituted as an award to be presented on alternating years. It was awarded to men and women of special note in regards to their work in the field of natural sciences. In 1976, the Charles Redd Prize was initiated to be awarded alternately with the Gardner Prize. The Charles Redd Prize was presented to an individual “in recognition of a most significant contribution to the humanities, or for the betterment of mankind, within the state of Utah during the five years preceding the award.” This award is given in the field of social science as well. The Charles Redd Prize was last awarded in 2002. Beginning in 2006, the Willard Gardner Prize was changed to the John and Olga Gardner Prize and the Willard and Viola Gardner Prize which are now awarded on alternate years and is awarded during the annual spring conference.