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Professors Trevor Robbins and Barbara Sahakian awarded the Robert Sommer Medal for research on schizophrenia.

Congratulations to Professors Trevor Robbins and Barbara Sahakian on being awarded the Robert 

Sommer Medal to honour outstanding research in the field of schizophrenia.

Robert Sommer Award Symposium

Every two years, the Robert Sommer Research Society awards the Robert Sommer Medal to honour outstanding research in the field of schizophrenia.

Awardees are nominated by the International Jury of the Robert Sommer Research Society. Robert Sommer prize winners are also appointed as members of the International Jury.

Members of the International Jury: Tim Crow (Oxford, UK), Nancy Andreasen (University of Iowa, USA), Robin Murray (Kings College London, UK), Daniel Weinberger (National Institute of Mental Health, USA), Chris and Uta Frith (Univeristy College London, UK), Bernd Gallhofer (Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany), Lynn DeLisi (New York University, USA), Shetij Kapur (Institute of Psychiatry London, UK) and David Lewis (University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, USA).

Scientific Board: A. Meyer-Lindenberg (Central Institute of Mental Health, Germany), T. Kircher (Phillips University Marburg, Germany), R. Murray (Kings College London, UK), T. Crow (Oxford, UK), P. Netter (Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany).

About the Robert Sommer Award

The Robert Sommer Award Medal (as pictured above) was initiated for the 100th anniversary of the Centre for Psychiatry at Justus Liebig University School of Medicine, Giessen, Germany. The medal had originally been created as a memory medal by the Centre's founder, Robert Sommer, to be presented to his dear guests and colleagues.

Robert Sommer (1864 to 1937) established the Centre for Psychiatry in Giessen in 1896. He was also a founder of the worldwide first Society for Experimental Psychology. He was well-known for his readiness to follow uncommon routes of thought and to engage in matters far beyond the field of psychiatry. Robert Sommer was in close touch with all leading neuroscientists of his time, and he was a close friend of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of experimental psychology, who held the Chair of Psychology in Leipzig, Germany.

The Robert Sommer Medal underlines the present spectre of cooperation of the team of researchers in Giessen with numerous centres of the international research community. The Robert Sommer Award Symposium whises to gather an equisite circle of international avantgarde researchers in the field of schizophrenia and hopes to provide them with a framework for unrestrained discussion of recent critical topics in a personal and intimate atmosphere.

Another intention of the symposium is to provide junior researchers with a free of charge opportunitiy to present their work to the international community and discuss their ideas with top researchers in an atmosphere of encouragement and without the financial restraint and anonymity of world conferences.

Award winners are elected by an international jury of representatives of the neurosciences and past award winners.

Past award winners: Timothy Crow (Oxford, Great Britain), Nancy Andreasen (Iowa, United States), Robin Murray (London, Great Britain), Daniel Weinberger (Bethesda, United States), Uta and Chris Frith (London, Great Britain), Lynn DeLisi (New York, United States) and Shitij Kapur (London, Great Britain).

Jury speaker: Bernd Gallhofer (Giessen, Germany)

Scientific Commitee: Tim Crow, Oxford, Tilo Kircher, Marburg, Peter Kirsch, Mannheim, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Mannheim, Petra Netter, Giessen

Past contributors to the Symposium include Lars Farde, Stockholm, Richard Frackowiak, England, Meyer-Lindenberg, Mannheim, Peter Falkai, Göttingen, Peter Jones, Cambridge, Peter Liddle, Nottingham, Birte Glenthoj, Copenhagen, Robin Murray, London, Torgny Svensson, Stockholm and many more.

It has become the cherished tradition of the symposium that the awardee is invited to conduct the Reiskirchen Brass Wind Consortium, one of Germanys most lauded brass bands, as an overture to the dinner party. The conductor's traditional featherbush hat and baton will then be handed over to the awardee as the sign of the (in)formal investiture to the Award and membership of the jury.

Posted on 01/03/2016