Philip Edgcumbe, a UBC MD/PhD student, helped lead the XPRIZE Alzheimer’s disease team into its highest honour at the 2017 XPRIZE Visioneers Summit.
The annual XPRIZE Visioneers Summit, held last fall, was the culmination of months of dedicated efforts by five teams—1) Alzheimer’s, 2) Clean Air, 3) Re-imagining Democracy, 4) Zero Waste Mining, and 5) Cybersecurity—all seeking to come out on top at the XPRIZE Visioneers Summit. The teams’ Impact Proposals were reviewed and evaluated by a group of 250 prominent corporate and government leaders, top innovators, respected philanthropists, and leading entrepreneurs.
Ric and Jean Edelman, founders of Edelman Financial Services and founding sponsors of the Alzheimer’s team, proudly announced at the Visioneers Summit their support to the team by providing $25 million in funding.
Edgcumbe is the Bold Innovator (Project Lead) for the XPRIZE Alzheimer’s team. His team was tasked with developing a proposal for a multi-million dollar incentive prize to end Alzheimer’s. The team was able to beat out the other four XPRIZE teams to receive the highest honors, moving them forward as top priority for an intended 2018 XPRIZE global competition.
“I was grateful that the Faculty of Medicine and the UBC MD/PhD program supported my pursuit of this opportunity. The mission of the UBC MD/PhD program is “…to be Canada’s leader in preparing the future generation of clinician scientists.” I feel that the XPRIZE experience helped me to better prepare to be a clinician-scientist and I think it reflects well on UBC that the UBC leadership supported this kind of out-of-the-box opportunity.” says Edgcumbe.
Last year, Edgcumbe received the 2017 Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (CMHF) Award. This award recognizes medical students with an established track record of community leadership, superior communication skills, and a demonstrated interest in advancing knowledge as future leaders and innovators of health care in Canada.