Annual Prizes & Awards

BAP Psychopharmacology Awards

2012 winner(s)

To reward those working in non-clinical and clinical psychopharmacology.

The Review Panel, comprising BAP Council Members, had an extremely difficult task this year, reviewing applications and nominations from a number of high-quality candidates.

After extensive discussions, it was agreed to present the Awards to the following BAP Members:

Cynthia Fu
(Institute of Psychiatry, London)
Presentation title: Developing neuroimaging-based biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis in depression

Karen Ersche
(University of Cambridge)
Presentation title: Lifting the veil on addiction vulnerability

Marcus Munafò was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, before moving to the University of Southampton to complete his MSc and PhD. Following this, he returned to the University of Oxford, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, and later the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. In 2004-2005 he spent 6 months as a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In March 2005 took up a tenured position in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, where he is now Professor of Biological Psychology and leads the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, and the Psychopharmacology Research Network.

His research interests span molecular genetics and human psychopharmacology, with a particular focus on substance use and mood. He is particularly known for his critical views on the strengths and weaknesses of the psychiatric genetics literature over the past decade, and has described methods for improving the reliability and replicability of molecular genetic findings. In addition, he has developed a range of novel tasks for the assessment of drug- and mood-related cognitions for use in human psychopharmacology studies. Recently, this line of research has included the development of tasks designed to modify these cognitions for therapeutic benefit, potentially in conjunction with pharmacotherapy. He is now exploring the implementation of these tasks on mobile (e.g., smartphone, tablet computer) platforms to exploit these new technologies. Future research will focus on the increasing integration of these research themes. For example, recall-by-genotype designs allow the identification of individuals who differ in underlying biology, while ambulatory assessments allow the precise assessment of cognitions and behaviour in naturalistic settings. These approaches will serve to maximise statistical power and measurement precision, and provide important new insights into the interplay of genotype, substance use, mood.

In 2004 he was awarded the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Young Investigator Award, and in 2005 the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Fellowship Award. He is Past-President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Europe, and serves on the editorial board of several journals, including as Deputy Editor for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and Senior Editor for Addiction. He serves on the addiction Scientific Advisory Panel for the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and has provided consultancy for the European Commission on two working groups, on smokeless tobacco products and tobacco additives. He has also advised the Commission on Human Medicines in the UK. Marcus Munafo
(University of Bristol)
Presentation title: Power, precision and phenotype in genetic association studies

View abstracts

Previous years' awards

The BAP Psychopharmacology Awards are awarded annually to reward excellence in both clinical and non-clinical psychopharmacology. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of BAP Officers and the Awards are presented at the conference dinner at the annual Summer Meeting. A condition of each Award is that the successful candidate provides an abstract and makes a short oral presentation within the 2013 Summer Meeting.

PRIZES FOR RESEARCH BY NON-CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS
One award of £250 for the best nomination submitted no more than 6 years post-doc
One award of £250 for the best nomination submitted no more than 12 years post-doc

PRIZES FOR RESEARCH BY CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS
One award of £250 for the best nomination submitted no more than 10 years after medical graduation
One award of £250 for the best nomination submitted no more than 20 years after medical graduation

Nominations, either from individuals or from members of the BAP wishing to nominate an individual should be submitted by email to the BAP Office, and must comprise the following:

1. A curriculum vitae

2. Three key published papers that have undergone peer review

3. A 250-word resumé of the nominee’s achievements to date and plans for the future

A condition of each Award is that the successful candidates will provide an abstract and make a short oral presentation at the 2013 Summer Meeting: 28-31 July, Harrogate International Centre.

CLOSING DATE: 31 MARCH 2013
Nominations should be emailed to Susan Chandler (susan@bap.org.uk)

Notes:
1. Clinical pharmacologists are defined as those who hold a medical degree (e.g. MBChB), and non-clinical psychopharmacologists as those without a medical degree. The separation refers to the primary degree of the applicants and not to the nature of their research

2. The different time frame for the two categories of researchers has been adopted on the basis that most clinical psychopharmacologists will spend several years in clinical training after medical graduation before they are eligible to enter a research post whereas non-clinical psychopharmacologists can enter a research post immediately after receiving a doctorate. In addition most clinical psychopharmacologists work part-time in research and part-time in clinical practice whereas non-clinical psychopharmacologists are more likely to hold full time research posts.

3. BAP reserves the option of not awarding prizes should a sufficient standard not be met.

4. The prizes are only open to current Members of the BAP.

Annual Prizes & Awards

BAP Psychopharmacology Awards

2012 winner(s)

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