ACLM's Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a lifetime of achievement in the field and is the highest honor the organization bestows on a health care pioneer.

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has awarded Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, the Nobel Prize-winning Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, with the organization's 2025 Lifestyle Achievement Award. The award was presented at ACLM's annual conference in Grapevine, Texas.

ACLM's Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a lifetime of achievement in the field and is the highest honor the organization bestows on a health care pioneer. This award recognizes a significant body of work over a significant span of time that has advanced the field of lifestyle medicine and, in the process, paved the way for others to follow. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals who have been devoted to the cause of lifestyle medicine for half of their lives or more.

Dr. Blackburn was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the co-discovery of telomerase and for defining the molecular structure of telomeres—the protective ends of chromosomes that preserve genetic stability during cell division. Her discoveries fundamentally reshaped the world's understanding of cellular aging, disease progression, and longevity by revealing how telomeres and the enzyme telomerase influence cellular health and resilience.

Dr. Blackburn's work has become a cornerstone of lifestyle medicine by illuminating the biological pathways through which daily behaviors—such as nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and sleep—can affect cellular aging. The connection between lifestyle factors and telomere length has inspired a generation of researchers and clinicians to explore how healthy living can slow biological aging and prevent disease.

"Dr. Blackburn's discoveries gave us a window into how lifestyle behaviors reach deep into our cells to influence health and longevity," ACLM CEO Susan Benigas said. "Her pioneering work provided the scientific foundation that validates what lifestyle medicine teaches every day—that how we live truly shapes how well, and how long, we live."

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include: Nathan Pritikin; Hans Diehl, DrHSC, MPH, FACN; Jack LaLanne; Kenneth Cooper, MD; John A. McDougall, MD; T. Colin Campbell, PhD; Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., MD, FACLM; and Dean Ornish, MD, FACLM. View a full list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients here.

About ACLM®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation's medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, essential to achieving the Quintuple Aim and whole-person health. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. ACLM is filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine in medical education, providing more than 1.2 million hours of lifestyle medicine education to physicians and other health professionals since 2004, while also advancing research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies.

Media Contact

Alex Branch, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 8173072399, abranch@lifestylemedicine.org, American College of Lifestyle Medicine

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SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine