Philip Cohen received the Distinguished Service Award at the Nature Miami Winter Biotechnology Symposium, February 6th-9th 2005. The meeting, entitled ‘Protein Kinases in Cancer Drug Discovery', also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of Reversible Protein Phosphorylation as a control mechanism by Edmond Fischer and Edwin Krebs, who jointly received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the meeting. The award was presented to Eddy Fischer at the meeting banquet on February 8th by Philip, who was Master of Ceremonies for the evening. As part of the award, Eddy Fischer and Ed Krebs each received a golden guinea from the reign of King George III, while Philip's award included a new driver to help improve his golf game!

Commenting on the award, Philip said 'You only have to look at recent recipients of the Distinguished Service Award to see what a great honour it is to have received it. In the previous three years it has been awarded to four legendary molecular biologists, Sidney Brenner in 2002, Francis Crick and James Watson in 2003 and Aaron Klug in 2004.'