NCRG Announces Recipients of Scientific Achievement Awards Awards to be Presented at Annual Conference
Three individuals who have made major contributions to the understanding of gambling disorders will be honored in December as the 2003 recipients of the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) Scientific Achievement Awards.
Robert Ladouceur, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, will receive the 2003 Senior Investigator Award, which honors investigators whose work has advanced the field of gambling-related research.
Ladouceur's work in cognitive behavior therapy and treatment outcomes is among the most well-known and widely referenced in gambling studies. He also has transformed the model of illusory control of independent events into one of the most influential in the field. His work has greatly impacted practice as well as theory. Specifically, clinicians now conduct psychotherapy, counseling, family and other group treatment in new ways. Additionally, Ladouceur has influenced the way public health systems conceptualize and conduct prevention activities. These issues had rarely received any meaningful attention until his landmark contributions.
Marc Potenza, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, will be the recipient of the 2003 Young Investigator Award. This category recognizes excellence in scientific contributions to the field of gambling studies by researchers who have received an advanced professional degree within the past 10 years.
Potenza has demonstrated outstanding abilities in the area of scholarship, clinical care and neuropsychiatric research. He has made a significant impact in the area of biological psychiatry. Potenza was one of the first investigators to publish neuroimaging studies of pathological gamblers with a study on the neural correlates of gambling urges, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. His original research is currently in press at the American Journal of Psychiatry. Potenza's work also has extended to psychopharmacological treatment of disordered gamblers. His participation in several multi-center drug trials has played a central role in designing a trial combining behavioral and psychopharmacological treatments for pathological gambling. Overall, he has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Renee Cunningham-Williams, Ph.D., a research assistant professor of social work in psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, will receive a Young Investigator Honorable Mention for her outstanding work on the comorbidity of gambling disorders and the development of assessments to diagnose the disorder.
The 2003 award recipients will be honored at a luncheon Dec. 9 during the NCRG's annual conference, "Regulating Addiction: How Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Manage Excessive Behaviors."
The NCRG established the awards program in 2002 to honor outstanding contributions to the study of gambling and gambling-related problems. That year, the NCRG Scientific Achievement Awards were presented to Robert Custer, M.D. (posthumously), and Nancy Petry, Ph.D.
AWARDS SELECTION COMMITTEE
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D., chair
Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D.
Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry
Washington University School of Medicine
Richard I. Evans, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor of Psychology
University of Houston
David C. Lewis, M.D.
Donald G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and
Addiction Studies
Professor of Medicine and Community Health
Brown University
Peter E. Nathan, Ph.D.
University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor
of Psychology
University of Iowa
Christine H. Thurmond
Administrative Director
Division on Addictions
Harvard Medical School
