AAN Alliance Awards
Founders and S. Weir Mitchell Awards
Sponsored by the American Brain Foundation and endowed by the Alliance Founders and S. Weir Mitchell Permanent Endowment.
Deadline to Apply: October 15, 2012
Founders Award / Established 1994
This award is designed to encourage clinical and translational research in neuroscience by physicians in clinical neurology training programs.
The Alliance Awards Subcommittee considers originality, scientific merit, neurological interest, and clarity of expression as criteria for review.
2012 Recipient: Amer Ghavanini, MD, PhD, Toronto, ON, Canada
Alliance Awards Subcommittee Selection Statement:
“The American Academy of Neurology is pleased to announce the awarding of the Founders Award to Dr. Amer Ghavanini for
his work on the relationship between oscillation patterns, anatomical location and clinical response in deep brain stimulation
therapy for Parkinson’s disease. This therapeutic modality continues to show great promise in treating PD, with ongoing advances
contingent on continued discovery of the underlying pathophysiology and response to therapies. In this work, Dr. Ghavanini
demonstrates that movement related-desynchronization and self-paced movement-related synchronization are features of the
basal-ganglia-thalamocortical circuit which may be specific to clinically effective contacts. We congratulate Dr. Ghavanini and
his colleagues on this important work and look forward to continued discovery of improved treatments for PD.”
Award History
2011 Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD
2010 Farrah Mateen, MD
2009 Kazuma Nakagawa, MD
2008 Richard Swartz, MD, PhD
2007 Jan Claassen, MD, PhD
2006 Michael Waters, MD, PhD
2005 Orhun Kantarci, MD
2004 David Williams, MBBS
2003 Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD
For more information, visit www.aan.com/view/foundersCA
Continued >>
S. Weir Mitchell Award / Established 1955
This award is designed to encourage basic research in neuroscience by physicians in clinical neurology training programs. The Alliance Awards
Subcommittee considers originality, scientific merit, neurological interest, and clarity of expression as criteria for review.
2012 Recipient: Nandakumar Narayanan, MD, PhD, New Haven, CT
Alliance Awards Subcommittee Selection Statement:
“Dr. Narayanan’s paper, Prefrontal dopamine influences performance of a fixed-interval timing task via D1 receptors, studied the
effect of disruption of dopaminergic transmission within the ventral tegmental area and prefrontal cortex on a timed task. He found
that such disruption impaired fixed-interval timing performance via D1 dopamine receptors. Additionally, selective stimulation of
prefrontal neurons expressing D1 receptors facilitated fixed-interval timing performance. The results of this study suggest a novel
role for ventral tegmental dopaminergic projections to prefrontal cortex in temporalcontrol. These results could help to identify
novel therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s disease.”
Award History
2011 Dong Wang, MD
2010 Peter Todd, MD, PhD
2009 Sashank Prasad, MD
2008 Thomas Lloyd, MD, PhD
2007 Robert H. Baloh, MD, PhD
2006 Shyamal Meta, MD, PhD
2005 Jeffrey Rumbaugh, MD, PhD
2004 Yaping Liao, MD
2003 Pedro Gonzalez-Alegre, MD
For more information, visit www.aan.com/view/allianceweirCA
Presentation
AAN Alliance Award recipients are expected to give a 10-minute presentation based on the selected manuscript during a scientific session
at the 65th AAN Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.
Recipient Will Receive
·· Certificate of recognition and $1,000 prize (Founders Award)
·· Medallion and $1,000 prize (S. Weir Mitchell Award)
·· Complimentary registration for the 65th Annual Meeting
·· Reimbursement for the 65th Annual Meeting travel and housing
·· $100 per day for expenses (up to two days)
·· Recognition at the 2013 Awards Luncheon at the 65th Annual Meeting
Eligibility
·· Applicants should be members of the AAN in good standing and be less than 18 months from the completion of their residency training
(at the time of submission)
·· Must be a senior author of a research-based manuscript
·· Manuscript must not be previously published or submitted for publication (at the time of submission)
Application Procedure
Applicants can apply for only one of the Alliance Awards. Manuscripts may be considered for the other award as the Subcommittee deems appropriate.
Applicants should submit one complete set of the following:
1. Completed application form
2. Current curriculum vitae
3. Typed, double-spaced copy of the complete manuscript, including names and addresses of all authors (supplemental materials may be submitted);
manuscripts and bibliographies must be in the format used in the Neurology ® journal
4. Letter from the training program director attesting to the applicant’s enrollment and status in the program
5. Letter from the faculty researcher sponsor detailing the extent of collaboration and support received by the applicant while conducting this research
and verifying all work was completed during applicant’s residency or fellowship period
6. On a separate piece of paper, include a list of residency and/or fellowship start dates, end dates, and program directors
7. Letter from research mentor verifying all work submitted was completed during the residency or fellowship training