Each year, WCBR solicits nominations for the annual Pioneer Awards. This tradition serves to recognize and honor pioneering scientists who demonstrate excellence in the field of neuroscience and have made invaluable contributions to WCBR over the years. Many worthy candidates were nominated this year and the WCBR Board of Directors and Executive Committee had the difficult task to select two candidates for recognition. Thank you to all those who nominated our candidates, as we sincerely appreciate the considerable work required to build a nomination that represents the immense contributions of our worthy candidates.

Congrats to our 2025 Winter Brain Pioneers! 

Allan Basbaum

Allan Basbaum completed undergraduate studies at McGill University, where he studied with Ronald Melzack, received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and did postdoctoral research at University College London with Patrick Wall. Presently, he is a professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy at UCSF. His research focuses on peripheral and central nervous system mechanisms that process pain and itch messages, including the molecular mechanisms that contribute to chronic pain after tissue or nerve injury. He served as Editor-in-Chief of PAIN, the journal of the IASP, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of the UK Royal Society. He recently completed a 4 year membership on NINDS council and continues to serve on the Multi-Disciplinary Working Group for HEAL (Health End Addiction Long-term). In addition to being a long-time attending of the WCBR, he served as its Program Chair (1991-1993), its Treasurer (1994-1998) and as Conference Chair (2000-2002).  He has published over 370 papers/chapters, which have been cited over 79,000 times (h-factor 130). 

Claude Wasterlain

Dr. Claude Wasterlain is a world leader in status epilepticus and epilepsy research. Dr. Wasterlain earned his MD at the University of Liege before coming to the US, completed his residency at Cornell University Medical College and research fellowship in Dr. J.B. Posner’s laboratory. He has spent most of his career at UCLA, where he is now the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He has discovered several core mechanisms of seizure activity including the long-term effects of seizures on brain development, the role of trafficking of GABAA and NMDA receptor in initiating status epilepticus, the mechanism of seizure-induced neuronal injury and the role of memory circuits in epileptogenesis. This work has had major therapeutic applications. Dr. Wasterlain has won several awards including for Basic Research in Epilepsy from the American Epilepsy Society, 1992, the Pierre Gloor Award of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, 1996, Ambassador Award from the International League Against Epilepsy, 2003, and UCLA’s “Golden Hammer” teaching award (1996). He has been attending WCBR for over 40 years and has been a member of the Program Committee, the Council, and the Board of Directors.  Dr. Wasterlain has published 8 books, 223 peer-reviewed articles, and 64 book chapters or reviews

Past Pioneers

2024

Thomas Hyde, M.D., Ph.D.
Anil Malhotra, M.D.

2023

Marisela Morales, M.S., Ph.D.
Phil Skolnick, Ph.D., D.Sc.

2022

Jacqueline F. McGinty, Ph.D.
Mark Geyer, Ph.D.

2020

Eliot L. Gardner, Ph.D.
Fritz Henn, D.Phil., M.D.

2019

Barry E. Levin, M.D.
Oswald (Os) Steward, Ph.D.

2018

Lakshmi Devi, Ph.D.
Daniel Weinberger, M.D.

2017

Jill Becker, Ph.D.
William Catterall, Ph.D.
Miles Herkenham, Ph,D.
George Koob, Ph.D.
Sarah Leibowitz, Ph.D.
Roger Nicoll, M.D.
Charles O’Brien. M.D., Ph.D.
Suzanne Zukin, Ph.D.