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22 November 2019

Professor Stephen McMahon receives 2019 Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Award

Congratulations to Professor Stephen McMahon, who has been awarded the British Neuroscience Association’s prestigious 2019 Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience award.

Professor Stephen McMahon has been awarded the British Neuroscience Association’s prestigious 2019 Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience award

Professor McMahon is Sherrington Professor of Physiology at the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases. He will receive his award at the BNA Christmas Symposium on December 16 2019 in Bush House.

Obviously, I am honoured and flattered - and not a little surprised – by this award. I joined the BNA or rather the BRA, as it then was, nearly 40 years ago. I have always admired the work it has done in promoting neuroscience and down the years I have contributed to numerous events it has organised. Throughout this period my primary research interest has been in better understanding pain mechanisms and I have been lucky to have pursued that with continuous support from the MRC and Wellcome Trust... Pain research remains an area of considerable unmet medical need and so I take considerable pleasure in seeing work in this area recognised by the BNA. Strangely, and like London buses, not just once but twice in succession when unexpected!

Professor Stephen McMahon

Vice Dean Neuroscience, Professor Mark Richardson added, ‘Professor McMahon has made an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the physiology of pain. This award is well-deserved recognition of the exceptional quality of his work.'

BNA Stephen 366x515

In addition to running the McMahon Lab at Wolfson CARD, Professor McMahon (pictured left) currently directs the Wellcome Trust Pain Consortium, and prior to this, the London Pain Consortium, a collection of leading pain researchers working to better understand chronic pain mechanisms and improve treatments. He was academic lead on a EU-IMI consortium called Europain, a collaboration of scientists working in academia and industry, 2009-2015. He has published more than 300 original research articles, many highly rated (H-index >100) and is co-editor of the Textbook of Pain. His work has been published in leading scientific journals including, Nature, Nature Medicine, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Cell, Neuron and Brain. He is the holder of a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is the largest UK organisation representing and promoting neuroscience and neuroscientists, with origins dating back to the 1960s. Its core purpose and role is to support the professional neuroscience community and hence facilitate the best possible thinking and ideas in neuroscience research.