BIAA Awards Program

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.

2023 Awards Timeline

• Nominations Accepted: June 5 – August 31, 2023
• Award Committee Reviews Nominations: September 1-15, 2023
• Recipients Announced: September 2023
• Awards Presented: ACRM Annual Conference, October 30 – November 2, 2023

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

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

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