Harvard Professor gets Mani Bhaumik Award

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 5 (PTI) A Harvard University Professor
has been named recipient of the Mani Bhaumik Award, set up in
the name of this eminent Indian American scientist, who is
co-inventor of laser technology.

Dr Herbert Benson director emeritus of the Benson-Henry
Institute (BHI) for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts
General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at the
Harvard Medical School, would receive the award for the year
2009 on March 18.

The award is given ever year by Cousins Center for
Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California Los
Angeles, to support investigators in international community
who advance the understanding of the brain and the conscious
mind in healing through visionary research, books and
education.

A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Harvard Medical
School, Benson is the author and co-author of more than 180
scientific publications and 11 books. A pioneer in mind/body
medicine, he is one of the first Western physicians to bring
the effect of conscious mind on healing into medicine.

"Dr Benson is truly one of the seminal thinkers in
bringing the integrated study of the mind and body to Western
medicine," said Bhaumik in a media release. He has funded this
USD 15,000 annual award.

"Even though, as a cardiologist, he was trained in the
Western ethos of medicine and persevered in successfully
developing his relaxation response at a time when such
practices of alternative medicine were frowned upon in the
West," he said.

In his 35 year career, he defined one of the tenets of
mind/body medicine, the relaxation response, which leads to a
state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional
responses to stress (e.g., decreases in heart rate, blood
pressure, rate of breathing, muscle tension, and an overall
feeling of well being).

He continues to lead teaching and research into the
techniques and efficacy of the relaxation response in
counteracting the numerous harmful effects of stress. PTI LKJ
AM