Harold P. Freeman, M.D. was the second recipient of the Rudin Prize, awarded on November 16, 2004 . Dr. Freeman was the chief architect of the American Cancer Society's initiative on cancer in the poor and is a leading authority on the interrelationships among race, poverty, and cancer.

Dr. Freeman is Associate Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Director of the NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, and Medical Director of The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in NYC. He is also Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was Director of Surgery at Harlem Hospital from 1974 to 1999. From 1999 to 2001, he served as President and CEO of North General Hospital, in NYC. Since 1979 he has been Medical Director of the Breast Examination Center of Harlem.

Dr. Freeman graduated from Howard University Medical School and completed a residency in General Surgery at Howard University Hospital . He was subsequently Senior Resident in Cancer Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center . Dr. Freeman is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He has been Chairman of the Surgical Section of the National Medical Association, the NYS Commission for a Healthy New York, the NYS Breast Cancer Treatment Quality Advisory Panel, and the US President's Cancer Panel. Since 1997, he has been a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Among Dr. Freeman's numerous awards are the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Betty Ford Award (1999), Time, Inc. Health Lifetime Achievement Award (2000), Mary Lasker Award for Public Service (2000), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC Foundation Champion of Prevention Award (2001), the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor Award (2002), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Special Recognition Award (2003).