Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals

The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals highlight excellence in our federal workforce by recognizing exceptional federal employees who are breaking down barriers, overcoming huge challenges, and getting results. Awarded by the Partnership for Public Service, the "Sammies" inspire other talented and dedicated individuals to go into public service and show the world the many ways our government is making our country better, safer, and stronger.

• Barney S. Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett (2021). Federal Employee of the Year Award for conducted groundbreaking research that led to the development of highly effective vaccines in record time that are protecting hundreds of millions of people from contracting the deadly coronavirus that swept across the globe in 2020 and 2021.
• Gary H. Gibbons and Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable (2021). COVID-19 Response Medal for developing and implementing federal programs to increase testing as well as participation in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine trials in underserved communities across the country.
• Anthony S. Fauci (2020). Federal Employee of the Year Award for serving as the government’s premier expert and spokesperson on infectious diseases during six presidencies, including taking a prominent role in seeking to protect the public from the highly contagious and deadly new coronavirus that swept through the country and the world in 2020.
• Daniel L. Kastner (2018). Federal Employee of the Year Award for identifying an entire new class of rare genetic diseases and treatments to alleviate suffering for thousands of patients in the U.S. and around the world.
• Steven A. Rosenberg (2015). Federal Employee of the Year Award for developing life-saving treatments for millions of cancer patients, pioneering the use of the body’s immune system and genetically engineered anti-tumor cells to fight the disease.
• Jean C. Zenklusen, Carolyn Hutter, and The Cancer Genome Atlas Team (2015). People’s Choice Award for mapping thousands of gene sequences for more than thirty types of cancer, advancing precision medicine in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these deadly diseases.
• Julie Segre, Tara Palmore, and Team (2013). Federal Employee of the Year Award for stopping the spread of a deadly hospital-acquired infection through the first-ever use of genome sequencing to identify the source and trace the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, creating a groundbreaking model for the health care industry.
• Neal S. Young (2012). Science and Environment Award for saving lives through cutting-edge research and treatments for patients with bone marrow failure diseases, including the rare and once deadly blood disorder known as aplastic anemia.
• William A. Gahl (2011). Science and Environment Award for bringing together medical specialists to diagnose mysterious diseases for desperate and long suffering patients.
• Thomas Alexander Waldmann (2009). Career Achievement Award for, over the course of a 52-year career, making cutting-edge discoveries that have led to effective treatments for previously fatal forms of T-cell leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple sclerosis.
• Douglas R. Lowy and John T. Schiller (2007). Federal Employee of the Year Award for making discoveries that led to the development of a vaccine for the virus that causes a majority of cervical cancers worldwide.