The Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2020 Sherman Prizes, which recognize individuals working toward improving the lives of people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis — known collectively as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

Nominations for the Sherman Prizes will be open until July 17 — a two month extension from the original deadline — and the awards will be presented Dec. 10 at the 19th Annual Advances in IBD conference in Orlando, Fla.

Now in their fifth year, the goal of the Sherman Prizes is to promote and encourage IBD awareness and developments. The prizes are awarded to individuals who help people with IBD and their families to mitigate the physical and emotional challenges of the condition.

“My wife Cynthia and I created the Sherman Prize to celebrate excellence in IBD and inspire greater advances so fewer families have to face the challenges of these diseases,” Bruce Sherman, founder of the Sherman Prize, sad in a press release. “It’s been inspiring to see the innovative work being done by brilliant IBD professionals. We’re excited to begin our fifth year and we can’t wait to see who is nominated.”

The Sherman Prizes are awarded to individuals who have gone above and beyond in one of three broader categories pertaining to IBD: patient care, medical research, or public service and education.

Patient care encompasses taking exceptional care of people with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, working with them on the emotional challenges of IBD, identifying risk factors, supporting emerging doctors, and providing patients, caregivers, and families with information about the disease.

For medical research, the guidelines for nomination include studying risk factors to improve diagnoses, and understanding how the disease works. The guidelines also include studying environmental and genetic factors to better identify risk, developing tools to predict patient needs, researching treatments for IBD and its complications, and encouraging multi-disciplinary work.

Finally, candidates may be nominated for public service or education by raising awareness, guiding the next generation of disease specialists, and advocating for either improvements in IBD care or in policies.

Eligible candidates must live and work in the U.S.

The prizes include two $100,000 awards to clinicians, surgeons, researchers, and/or academics who have devoted themselves to advancing care in IBD, and, in so doing, have inspired others. There also is one $25,000 Sherman Emerging Leader Prize, which is awarded to an early-career IBD professional who has contributed to disease advancements and has potential for future contributions.

The Sherman Prize Board of Directors ultimately selects the winners of the awards, with input from the selection committee, which includes several prominent physicians who specialize in IBD.

The 12 previous winners have encompassed a number of different occupations, including physician scientists, a pediatric IBD specialist, a colorectal surgeon, and a psychiatrist specializing in treating people with inflammatory bowel diseases. Videos documenting the way in which each previous winner has impacted the lives of IBD patients can be found on this website.

Those wishing to nominate an inspirational IBD professional may do so on the Sherman Prize website.