2024 CAP Outstanding Communicator Award

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) Outstanding Communicator Award, established in 1991, honors William L. Kuehn, PhD, and recognizes outstanding communication contributions strengthening the image of pathology.

The College of American Pathologists presents Marianne Hamel, MD, PhD, FCAP, with the 2024 CAP Outstanding Communicator Award in recognition of her novel contribution to the art exhibition “Death Under Glass,” which communicates the complexity and subtleties of determining cause and manner of death. "Death Under Glass” is produced and curated in partnership with forensic photographer NIkki Johnson MFA, BFA.

The exhibition consists of photomicrographs of human tissue printed on aluminum panels and includes expository panels that explain the origin of the image, the injury or disease depicted, and the role that histologic interpretation plays in the practice of forensic pathology. “Death Under Glass” allows the public to see the pathologist's view of the world through the microscope; no previous exhibition has used histology to show the intersection of art and science.

Images from and information about the exhibition have been featured on National Public Radio's Science Friday, in the UK’s The Independent newspaper, and in New York Magazine. “Death Under Glass” was exhibited in 2014 at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, at Bart's Pathology Museum, Queen Mary University of London in 2015, and at the American Society for Clinical Pathology annual meeting, also in 2015. Most recently, an expanded version of the exhibition was shown at the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers University-Camden in New Jersey. Pieces from the exhibition have been acquired for the Stedman Gallery’s permanent collection, and others are on permanent loan to the Drexel University College of Medicine and the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.

Dr. Hamel engages a large social media audience, with 130,000 Instagram followers and 2,500 Twitter/X followers. In December, she published an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer on medical museum policies. Recently named a brand ambassador for Evident (formerly Olympus Scientific Solutions), Dr. Hamel’s work promoting histology will be featured in the company’s marketing campaign.

Dr. Hamel practices forensic pathology in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and owns Jersey Shore Forensics, a private consulting firm. Her active research career, focusing on autopsy techniques and violent death during pregnancy, is partly funded by a Lucas Grant from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She is also the recipient of a Wood Travel Grant from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a Brocher Foundation Fellowship based in Geneva, Switzerland, and a Fulbright Fellowship in Police Research and Criminal Justice at the law department of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Hamel is a forensic pathologist at Jersey Shore Forensics in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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