By Richard Lewis, MD, Immediate Past President, PNS

Each year, we award the prestigious Alan J. Gebhart Prize for Excellence in Peripheral Nerve Research during our awards ceremony at the PNS Annual Meeting. This award recognizes an Active PNS Member’s ongoing contributions to our mission of “improving the lives of people with peripheral neuropathies.” The unrestricted cash prize is awarded to an established researcher in the peripheral nerve field. This year the award is shared between two members who have made outstanding conributions to the field. 

Claudia Sommer, MD, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

Claudia Sommer is Professor of Neurology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. She is the quintessential translational clinician scientist, with a broad range of interests. She is an outstanding physician who has made incredible contributions to our understanding of inflammatory neuropathies, neuropathic pain, and small fiber neuropathies. These contributions have been clinical, pathologic, and immunologic. Author of over 300 papers, Claudia has been a model and mentor of many young investigators, many of whom who have attended the PNS Annual Meeting. She is the immediate past president of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and has served the PNS in multiple capacities. She is a most deserving recipient of this prize.