BIAA Awards Program
The Brain Injury Association of America recognizes outstanding clinicians and researchers in the field of brain injury.
The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) recognizes outstanding clinicians and researchers in the field of brain injury through two annual awards, the Sheldon Berrol M.D. Clinical Service Award and William Fields Caveness Award.
Each year, the Sheldon Berrol M.D. Clinical Service Award is presented to an individual who, through a long service career, has made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of care, professional training, and/or education in the field of brain injury. The William Fields Caveness Award is presented by BIAA in recognition of an individual who, through research on both a national and international level, has made outstanding contributions to bettering the lives of people who have sustained brain injury.
2024 Awards Timeline
- Nominations Accepted: TBA
- Award Committee Reviews Nominations: TBA
- Recipients Announced: TBA
- Awards Presented: TBA
Sheldon Berrol M.D. Clinical Service Award
This award recognizes an individual who, through a long service career, has made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of care, professional training, and/or education in the field of brain injury.
Nomination Criteria
- Describe this individual’s area of clinical service.
- How has this service contributed to improving the quality of care, professional training and/or education for people who have sustained brain injuries?
- Has the work of this individual been disseminated to the public? If yes, please describe the manner in which this has been done.
Sheldon Berrol M.D. Clinical Service Award Background
“Dr. Sheldon Berrol (‘Shelly’ to all) was a man whose contributions to his world were innumerable and diverse. It need not be said, but should be said, that in many ways, to those of us who knew him, he was one of a kind, and irreplaceable. All who met Shelly were immediately struck by his lively, humorous interest and concern, most importantly for his family, but also for his friends and colleagues, his patients (who were, as often as not, also his friends and colleagues), his profession, and his society.
“He made advocacy and integrity in his personal relationships, in his performance as physician, and in his work with the disabled a lifetime commitment. Beyond all this he had the ability to create significance and dignity in areas where obliviousness and denigration had been the standards. Examples are many; his early recognition and support of the independent living movement, his support for the dignity and rights of the disabled in areas such as sexuality, self-determination, and community access, his founding the first and premier professional journal aimed at the rehabilitation of the head injured, are but a few.
“Virtually no area of endeavor which involved improving the quality-of-life, civil rights and social perceptions of disabled people was not a beneficiary from Shelly’s early and steadfast advocacy and support. In a way no one else could, he bridged the traditional gap of miscommunication and distrust between ‘patients’ and ‘professionals.’ Shelly’s reputation and acclaim were rightly national and international in scope.” –Excerpted from a tribute by Nathan Cope, M.D., published in Moving Ahead, newsletter of ACRM Brain Injury Special Interest Group.
Previous Sheldon Berrol M.D. Clinical Service Award Recipients
2023 Mark J. Ashley, Sc.D., CCC-SLP, CCM, CBIST
2022 Gaylan Rockswold, M.D., Ph.D
2021 Cindy Ivanhoe, M.D
2020 Lance Trexler, Ph.D., FACRM
2019 Samantha L. Backhaus, Ph.D.
2018 Janet M. Williams, MSW, Ph.D.
2017 Alan H. Weintraub, M.D.
2016 Mel Glenn, M.D.
2015 Keith D. Cicerone, Ph.D., ABPP-Cn
2014 Gregory J. O’Shanick, M.D.
2013 Brent E. Masel, M.D.
2012 James F. Malec, Ph.D.
2011 Nathan D. Zasler, M.D.
2010 Jeffrey Englander, M.D.
2002 Roberta DePompei, Ph.D.
2001 Douglas Katz, M.D.
2000 Kathleen B. Fralish, Ph.D.
1999 Catherine F. Bontke, M.D.
1998 Jam Ghajar, M.D., Ph.D.
1997 Anne-Lise Christensen, Dr.h.c.
1996 Randall Matthew Chestnut, M.D.
1995 James P. Kelly, M.D.
1994 Jeffrey S. Kreutzer, Ph.D.
1993 Nathaniel Mayer, M.D.
1992 Guy L. Clifton, M.D.
1991 L. Don Lehmkuhl, Ph.D.
1990 Thomas E. Kay, Ph.D.
1989 Muriel D. Lezak, Ph.D.
1988 Mitchell Rosenthal, Ph.D.
William Fields Caveness Award
This award recognizes an individual who, through research on both a national and international level, has made outstanding contributions to bettering the lives of people who have sustained brain injury.
Nomination Criteria
- In what kind of research has the nominee been engaged? Detail both national and international research endeavors.
- How has this person’s research impacted the field, the lives of persons with brain injuries and their families?
- Comment on the breadth and depth of research dissemination efforts.
William Fields Caveness Award Background
William Fields Caveness, M.D. was internationally known in the areas of brain injury, neurology-epilepsy and the effects of radiation on the brain. He began his work at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York in 1948 and remained there until 1969 when he became Chief of the Laboratory of Experimental Neurology at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disease and Stroke, now the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He served as President of the American Epilepsy Society.
Dr. Caveness’ interest in brain injury grew out of his experiences in the Korean War, during which he was Chief, Neurology Service, U.S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan, and when the Vietnam war broke out he convinced the armed forces medical command to establish a registry of soldiers with head injuries so that their long-term outcome could be assessed. The resulting Vietnam Head Injury Study has now completed Phase III and by the time Phase IV is completed, the study will have run for almost 50 years, a testament to and reflection of Dr. Caveness’ unique combination of professional expertise, political savvy and absolute commitment required to achieve the initial funding from all three Uniformed Services and the Veterans Administration.
Previous William Fields Caveness Award Recipients
2023 Geoffrey Manley, M.D., Ph.D.
2022 Steven Broglio, Ph.D, ATC
2021 Juliet Haarbauer-Krupa, Ph.D., FACRM
2020 Angela Colantonio, Ph.D., OT Reg. (Ont.), FCAHS, FACRM
2019 Jennifer A. Bogner, Ph.D., ABPP, FACRM
2018 Angelle M. Sander, Ph.D.
2017 Tessa Hart, Ph.D.
2016 Marcel Dijkers, Ph.D.
2015 Mark Sherer, Ph.D., ABPP, FACRM
2014 Joseph T. Giacino, Ph.D.
2013 Donald G. Stein, Ph.D.
2012 Ross D. Zafonte, D.O.
2011 Flora M. Hammond, M.D.
2010 Wayne A. Gordon, Ph.D., ABPP/Cn
2002 John Whyte, M.D., Ph.D.
2001 John D. Corrigan, Ph.D.
2000 Sureyya Dikmen, Ph.D.
1999 Tracy Kahl McIntosh, Ph.D.
1998 John A. Jane, Sr., M.D., Ph.D., FRCS(c)
1997 Raj K. Narayan, M.D., FACS
1996 Andres M. Salazar, M.D.
1995 Anthony Marmarou, Ph.D.
1994 Howard M. Eisenberg, M.D.
1993 Freda Gladys Newcombe, Ph.D.
1992 Robert G. Grossman, M.D.
1991 John T. Povlishock, Ph.D.
1990 George P. Prigatano, Ph.D.
1989 Murray Goldstein, DO, MPH
1988 Donald P. Becker, M.D.
1987 Leonard Diller, Ph.D.
1986 Lawrence F. Marshall, Ph.D.
1985 Harvey S. Levin, Ph.D.
1984 Thomas Gennarelli, M.D., FRCS
1983 Sheldon Berrol, M.D.
1982 Yehuda Ben-Yishay, Ph.D.
1981 W. Bryan Jennett, M.D., FRCS