A pioneer in stroke and central nervous system injury will receive the American Stroke Association’s highest honor — the Thomas Willis Award — at the International Stroke Conference 2008.
Pak H. Chan, Ph.D., professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, will deliver the Willis Lecture and discuss potential strategies for neuroprotection today at 11:20 a.m.
The American Stroke Association also will present awards to:
- S. Claiborne Johnston, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stroke Service and professor of neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, will be honored with the William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke.
- Pooja Khatri, M.D., an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati ,will be given the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke Award.
- Hans Worthmann, a neurology resident at the Medical School of Hanover Germany, will receive the Mordecai Y.T. Globus New Investigator Award.
Chan also is the James R. Doty Professor in Neurosurgery and Neurosciences and Professor by courtesy, and vice chair and director of research in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford.
He pioneered research in stroke and central nervous system injury research. He is the first investigator to use transgenic animals – animals containing genes from another species – to study oxidative mechanisms in neuronal death and survival.
He has previously received a Bugher Foundation Award from the American Heart Association, and is the recipient of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award.
Chan has published more than 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has edited two books about stroke research. He was Chairman of the 22nd Princeton Conference on Cerebrovascular Diseases and the President of the National Neurotrauma Society. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of several neurology journals. His current research interests focuses on oxidative signaling in cell death/survival mechanisms in stroke and central nervous system injuries and how to translate this basic knowledge into clinical therapies.
The Willis Award — which recognizes “major contributions to the understanding of stroke over a sustained period” — honors pioneer physician Thomas Willis (1621–1675), who is credited with providing the first detailed descriptions of the brain stem, cerebellum and ventricles along with hypotheses on their function.
Johnston will receive the Feinberg Award, which honors “significant achievement in the clinical investigation and management of stroke.” His Feinberg Lecture will focus on prioritizing stroke research – “which remains understudied when its dramatic impact on public health is considered.”
Johnston has published extensively on prevention and treatment of stroke and transient ischemic attack. He has led several large cohort studies of cerebrovascular disease and three multicenter randomized trials. Johnston is the executive vice editor of the Annals of Neurology and has served on the editorial boards of several other journals. He previously has been honored with the American Stroke Association’s Siekert New Investigator Award and the American Academy of Neurology’s Pessin Prize for Stroke Leadership.
The Feinberg Award, supported by an educational grant from the pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, is named for Dr. William Feinberg (1952–1997), a prominent stroke researcher and American Heart Association volunteer who contributed to a fuller understanding of the causes of stroke.
The two other awards recognize noteworthy research accomplishments by young investigators.
Khatri, , is honored for Abstract 130 “Good Outcome after Technically Successful Intra-Arterial Therapy is Time-Dependent,” which delves into the time dependence of a positive outcome after technically successful intra-arterial therapy. The oral abstract will be presented at 8:46 a.m. CST on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Worthmann earned recognition for Abstract 84 “Early Inflammation after TIA or Ischemic Stroke: Different MMP-9 Time Courses predict Stroke Severity” which focuses on the dynamics of inflammatory biomarkers in vascular disease. The oral abstract will be presented at 3:12 p.m. CST on Thursday, Feb. 21.
The Globus Award is supported by the University of Miami and is named for the late renonwned cerebrovascular researcher Mordecai Y.T. Globus.
The Siekert Award is named for the founding chair of the International Stroke Conference.