page_title: Ben Carson
section_title: Awards and honors
hierarchical_section_title: Ben Carson / Awards and honors
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr. Benjamin Carson listens Thursday, June 19, 2008, as he is announced as a recipient of the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom, at ceremonies in the East Room of the White House.
context_page_description: Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. is an American politician, author, and retired neurosurgeon who has served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2017. He was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016, at times leading nationwide polls of Republicans. He is considered a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery.
  Carson became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 1984 at age 33; he was the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States. At retirement, he was professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Carson's achievements include performing the only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head; performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb; performing the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins; developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors; and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He wrote over 100 neurosurgical publications. He retired from medicine in 2013.
context_section_description: Carson is a member of the American Academy of Achievement, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.
  Carson has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations. Detroit Public Schools opened the Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers. The school is partnering with Detroit Receiving Hospital and Michigan State University.
  In 2000, he received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
  In 2001, he was elected by the Library of Congress on the occasion of its 200th anniversary to be one of the 89 who earned the designation Library of Congress Living Legend.
  In 2004, he was appointed to serve on The President's Council on Bioethics.
  In 2005, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.
  In 2006, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, their highest honor for outstanding achievement.
  In 2008, the White House awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
  In 2008, Ford's Theatre Society awarded Carson the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal, for exemplifying the qualities embodied by President Abraham Lincoln—including courage, integrity, tolerance, equality, and creative expression—through superior achievements.
  In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named Carson as one of "America's Best Leaders".
  In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
  In 2012, Carson was the Influential Marylander Award recipient from The Daily Record, Baltimore's legal and business newspaper.
  In 2014, a poll of Americans conducted by Gallup ranked Carson sixth on a list of the most admired persons.
  He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation.
caption: Carson at the White House in 2008 for the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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