The Lifetime Achievement Award is a prestigious honour given annually by the SBCN since 2012 to those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of behavioural neurology. Dr. Black has made ground-breaking contributions to both research and clinical care throughout her career as the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program Director at Sunnybrook Research Institute, a world-renowned cognitive and stroke neurologist, and now the Scientific Director of the Dr. Sandra Black Centre for Brain Resilience & Recovery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. Black is only the second Canadian to receive this distinction from the SBCN, which was founded in 1982 as an affiliate society of the American Academy of Neurology. This achievement was marked by a virtual award ceremony on December 3, where peers in the fields of neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience gathered to honour her.
As part of the ceremony, Dr. Black presented highlights from her Sunnybrook Dementia Study (SDS), an ongoing multi-disciplinary research project that follows patients assessed in the Sunnybrook cognitive neurology clinics, including those with common types of dementias who have consented to participate in the study. The study, which embeds research into care, includes brain imaging, genetic testing, and memory, thinking, and behaviour assessments to track how their dementia progresses. Continuously funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research since 1995, the SDS aims to better understand the complex brain-behavior relationships between these dementias, stroke and small vessel disease and to search for better treatments.
Congratulations Dr. Black on this well-deserved achievement and for all of your successes in both research and clinical care for people living with dementia.
