Prestigious Sieratzki UK-Israel Prize for Advances in Neuroscience awarded

10th Dec 2017

Four early career neuroscientists have been awarded the prestigious Sieratzki UK-Israel Prize for Advances in Neuroscience following an initiative by the Sieratzki family, supported by the BNA and the Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN).

The prize, which is being launched today at the 2017 Meeting of the ISFN, aims to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of neuroscientists working within the UK and Israel.

As well as international recognition of their work, winners also receive a cash prize and travel bursary to attend either a UK or Israel national meeting to accept the award.

This year’s winners have contributed to breakthroughs in hippocampal memory networks, high-resolution brain imaging in stroke patients, and sensory deprivation research.

The prizes will be awarded at the annual meeting of the ISFN in Israel, or at the biennial BNA Festival of Neuroscience to be held in Dublin in April 2019. UK winners will travel to Israel to present their work, whilst Israeli winners will present in Dublin at the BNA Festival of Neuroscience 2019.

On behalf of the Sieratzki family and the ISFN, the BNA are delighted to announce the winners of the Sieratzki UK-Israel Prize for Advances in Neuroscience:

The 2017 UK Young Researcher’s Prize - Dr Linda Katona

Dr Katona is currently a Nicholas Kurti Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK. Dr Katona’s research investigating GABAergic interneurons in the hippocampal CA1 region led to the successful defence of a DPhil in neuroscience at the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit in 2014. Throughout this research career, Dr Katona has published several first-author papers in high-impact journals such as Neuron and Nature Neuroscience.

The 2017 Israeli Young Researcher’s Prize - Dr Ella Striem-Amit

Dr Striem-Amit successfully completed a PhD researching neuroplasticity in patients with sensory deprivation at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 2014. Dr Striem-Amit has a track record of high-impact publications, has developed new software for visual rehabilitation of congenitally blind individuals, and is now undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at Harvard University, USA.

The 2017 UK Early Career Researcher’s Prize - Dr Charlotte Stagg

Dr Stagg is Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, UK, specialising in brain imaging techniques at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Having completed a DPhil in brain stimulation in 2009, Dr Stagg has continued an upward trajectory of successive research positions including a GSK Junior Research Fellow in Biomedical Imaging. More recently, Dr Stagg has been awarded a Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow & Head position at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, alongside taking on a collection of teaching and mentoring roles.

The 2017 Israeli Early Career Researcher’s Prize - Dr Nitzan Censor

Dr Censor is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Having completed a PhD in neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Dr Censor has shown outstanding achievement in neuroscience and was recently awarded grants from both the Israel Science Foundation and the Binational Science Foundation. Having been published in Nature Neuroscience earlier this year, Dr Censors research focuses on brain plasticity in learning and memory processes.

On behalf of the Sieratzki family and the ISFN, the BNA would like to congratulate all four winners on this prestigious prize!