Bean Award

The American Osler Society offers the William B. Bean Student Research Award to support medical student research in medical history and medical Humanities. The stipend for the coming year will be $1,500.

Applicants must be currently matriculated students in accredited medical or osteopathic schools in the United States or Canada and must complete their research before graduation. Many previous winners have been invited to present their findings at an annual meeting of the American Osler Society.

History of the Bean Award:

William Bennet Bean, MD (1909-1989), whose father was one of Osler's residents, was the first president of the American Osler Society (1970-1971). The Society wished to encourage medical student interest and study in the Oslerian values of medical humanism and respect for the history of medicine and developed a student research award in 1986. This award was named in Dr. Bean’s honor in 1990.

The American Osler Society has given more than $150,000 to medical students since the research award’s founding. Historically, the Society made one or two awards annually, but in recent years it has offered as many as six. The award is supported by Society members and the number granted is based on the merit of the applications and the funds available.

Many Bean awardees have presented their work to the Society, which offers travel funds and free registration to support awardee attendance. Please see Bean Award Examples and How to Apply .

AOS presidents A. McGhee Harvey, MD and William Bennet Bean, MD (right) in 1978.

How to Apply:

Bean Award applications are available by clicking on the button below.

Applications must be submitted before the following March 1 to be eligible for that calendar year.

Applications must meet the following criteria:

The applicant must be a currently matriculated student in an accredited medical or osteopathic school in the United States or Canada.
There must be only one applicant per application.
The proposal must address medical history or the use of literature and the arts to improve medical practice. While important, we are not seeking projects confined to medical ethics.
Projects can be either literature research or active studies in medical education and practice.
The project must be completed before the applicant receives their medical degree, although the required final report may be completed within a year following degree completion.

Applications Will Open November 1, 2024

Bean Award Application

Bean Award Criteria and Examples:

The American Osler Society’s Bean Award Committee evaluates proposals and recommends awards to the Board of Governors, which makes the final decision on the number of awards the Society will grant. Committee members from the same institution as an applicant may not evaluate that applicant’s proposal. We score proposals via four criteria:

Appropriateness – advances medical history or uses humanities to improve education or practice.

Originality – explores new territory.

Attainability – has clear and achievable goals.

Scholarship – shows understanding of relevant work.

We are continually impressed by the thoughtfulness and quality of Bean Award applications. The following will give you an idea of the kinds of successful proposals we have seen in recent years, but we encourage you to bring us any creative proposal that addresses medical history or the use of literature and the arts to improve medical practice. You may note that some examples predate our current 1,500 word limit.

To view the past winners of the Bean Award please click here