Cezmi Akdis Prize

Cezmi Akdis Prize is given by the EAACI each year to the first author or shared between first coauthors of the most cited original research article published in Allergy, European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology during the past two years.  It is given as 5000 Euro cash prize to the winning scientist during the opening ceremony of the EAACI Annual Meetings.

Cezmi Akdis is the director of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) in Davos and Ordinarius Professor in Zurich University Medical Faculty.

He has honorary professorships from Beijign (China), Wuhan (China), and Bursa Uludag Universities (Turkey), Harvard University (USA), Zeiziang University (China).

He is a Senate Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.

Cezmi Akdis has published more than 750 peer-reviewed articles. His h-index is 169 and he was selected as a highly cited author consecutively for 8 years since 2016 by Clarivate (Thomson Reuters). He was the founder and organizer of the World Immune Regulation Meetings, Davos.

Activities in the EAACI

Cezmi Akdis acted as the President of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology between 2011-2013.

His journey in the EAACI started in 2001 in the Immunology Section.

He was the organizer of the first EAACI Winter Schools.

One of his duties was the establishment of the Scientific Program Committee of the EAACI. During his Vice Presidency he worked in the initiation and the organization of the first focused meetings, namely, PAAM, FAAM, DHM, SAM, and ISMA.

He was the congress president in EAACI Geneva 2012 & 2013 and EAACI-WAO Milan Congresses.

He contributed to more than 50 Guidelines articles and position papers.

He was the editor, co-editor of Global Atlases of Allergy, Asthma I-II, Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Allergic Rhinitis, Environment and Allergy.

He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Allergy, European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, which is the number one journal of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology discipline.

Major scientific contributions

Development of the concept of immune tolerance to allergens and demonstration of multiple cellular and molecular mechanisms and characteristics of a healthy immune response to allergens.

First time demonstration of many important cell subsets in humans, such as T regulatory, B regulatory, ILC regulatory, Type 2 NK and NK Regulatory Cells etc.

Identification of the mechanisms development in atopic dermatitis and contact dermatitis, particularly mechanisms of eczema lesion development in the skin.

He published more than 50 COVID papers including one of the first publications and many articles on how to handle allergy patients during the pandemics and immune events during COVID and severe COVID.

Cezmi Akdis’s current research is the continuation of his “epithelial barrier theory” on the development of allergic, autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases. His group has recently identified 68 diseases linked to Epithelial Barrier Damage and Microbial Dysbiosis overall are responsible for more than 2 billion patients. His group has published Epithelial Barrier Defects related findings in pets and domestic animals related to the One Health concept and athletes.