NIDA Director Honored By French Government With Top Science Award for Addiction Research
International Inserm Award to be given in Paris December 17th
Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has been awarded the International Prize from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) for her pioneering work in brain imaging and addiction science. Dr. Volkow will receive the award at a Dec. 17 ceremony at the College of France learning center in Paris.
Inserm, a government-supported biomedical research organization, is the French equivalent of the National Institutes of Health. Each year, it honors researchers for their contributions to basic and clinical research that enhance public health. Dr. Volkow's selection acknowledges her innovative imaging research showing drug addiction to be a disease of the brain that usurps the reward circuitry and leads to compulsive behaviors.
"I'm deeply honored to receive the Inserm award and gratified that the innovative tools available to addiction scientists are allowing us to literally see the effects of drug abuse and addiction on the brain," said Dr. Volkow. "What we uncover will inform more targeted and thus more effective strategies to help prevent and treat this devastating disease."
A research psychiatrist and scientist, Dr. Volkow is considered one of the world's leading specialists in the mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction. As NIDA's director since 2003, she leads an organization supporting most of the world’s research on drug abuse and its associated health consequences.
Along with Dr. Volkow, there were six other 2009 Inserm award winners all of France.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes
of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most
of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction.
The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and
improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information
on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at www.drugabuse.gov.
To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA's new DrugPubs research
dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or fax or email
requests to 240-645-0227 or drugpubs@nida.nih.gov.
Online ordering is available at http://drugpubs.drugabuse.gov.
NIDA's new media guide can be found at http://drugabuse.gov/mediaguide.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov. |
