Robert Klein receives Research!America Advocacy Award

Robert Klein, chair of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Governing Board, has received the 2010 Research!America Gordon and Llura Gund Leadership Award for his advocacy of stem cell and diabetes research.

Klein, who has a son with diabetes, conceived of, wrote and led the campaign for proposition 71, which established the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency. The proposition, which passed with 59 percent of the vote in 2004, provides $3 billion over ten years to be support stem cell research in California.

In 2005, Time Magazine honored Bob as one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People of the Year.” Soon after, Scientific American named Bob one of “The Scientific American 50” as a leader shaping the future of science.
In 2002, Bob was one of the principal negotiators on a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation team that worked successfully to pass a federal bill mandating an additional $1.5 billion over five years for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes research through the National Institutes of Health. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Research!America is a national alliance promoting funding for and awareness of biomedical research to improve health. Klein will be honored at the Advocacy Awards dinner on March 16, 2010, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC along with the three additional 2010 winners: March of Dimes for the Paul G. Rogers Distinguished Organization Advocacy Award; Ann Lurie for the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership; and Robert Mahley for the Builders of Science Award.

Klein is also president of Klein Financial Corporation, a real estate investment banking consulting company focused on affordable housing finance and development.