Dirk Hellhammer AwardThe International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology (ISPNE) awarded the prestigious Curt Richter Award since 2000 to a distinguished line of young investigators in the field of psychoneuroendocrinology. The Curt Richter Award was renamed in 2021 to honour our friend and colleague Dirk Hellhammer (1947-2018). Dirk was a pioneer of psychoneuroendocrinology, contributing some of most important and enduring progress in our field, from the Trier Social Stress Test to the characterization of the cortisol awakening response. Dirk headed ISPNE as its president from 2002 to 2005, and received the ISPNE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. The 2024 Dirk Hellhammer Award will be given by the Society during its Annual Meeting that will take place virtually on September 12th and 13th, 2024. The award consists of an honorarium, an award certificate, a plaque, a travel grant of up to US $1,000 to attend an annual meeting (this can be used to attend the 2025 in-person meeting in New Orleans), and exemption from membership dues to the Society for three years. The awardee will present their award talk at the 2024 virtual meeting, and receive their award plaque in person at the 2025 in-person meeting. Applicants must be 45 years of age or younger by June 30, 2024. The manuscript must be a report of original, never-published research in basic or clinical psychoneuroendocrinology. It may also be an integrative comprehensive new discussion of the author’s previously published findings. The manuscript should be prepared using the ISPNE Journal (Psychoneuroendocrinology) guidelines for preparation of manuscripts for publication. Following peer review, the manuscript will be automatically submitted for publication in the Journal and the award recipient will present the research at a plenary session during the Annual Meeting. Applications should be sent via email with “Dirk Hellhammer Award” as the subject line to ISPNE President Emma Adam at the following e-mail address: [email protected].
ISPNE 2023 Dirk Hellhammer Award RecipientsRobert Kumsta, PhD
University of Luxemburg
Robert Kumsta was appointed Professor of Biopsychology at the University of Luxemburg in May 2021. He studied psychology at the University of Trier, Germany, and received his Ph.D. in Psychobiology from the University of Trier in 2007. Funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, he joined the MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, to study the effects of severe institutional deprivation in the English and Romanian Adoptees Study. From 2010 until 2013, he held a Research Fellow position at the Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology at the University of Freiburg. Since October 2013, Robert Kumsta has been Professor and Chair of Genetic Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum. Using a range of methods, including the study of genetic variation, gene expression patterns, epigenetics, multi-comics integration, as well as the characterization of stress physiology, he is trying to understand how genetic and environmental factors work together to shape developmental trajectories and outcomes across the life-span.
Elizabeth A. (Birdie) Shirtcliff, PhD Elizabeth A. (Birdie) Shirtcliff, PhD, is a research professor at the University of Oregon and director of the Stress Physiology in Teens (SPIT) laboratory in the Center for Translational Neuroscience. Dr. Shirtcliff received her doctorate in biobehavioral health from Pennsylvania State University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in affective neuroscience. In 2023, Dr. Shirtcliff became the editor in chief of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology and consulting editor for Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology. Dr. Shirtcliff uses a variety of noninvasive tools to investigate the interplay of biological and behavioral factors unfolding across children's lives, especially in adolescence. Dr. Shirtcliff's focus is on hormones because the endocrine system is stress responsive, often mirroring a child's social environment. This interdisciplinary research examines both short-term stress responses, as well as biological changes that can consistently or even permanently change an individual's biology. Dr. Shirtcliff’s interdisciplinary leanings are revealed in this manuscript as it shows collaborative efforts between engineering, neuroscience and social science by exploring Virtual Reality Stressors.
Dirk Hellhammer Award Winners(renamed from the Curt Richter Award in 2021)
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