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Awards

Each year APA honors individuals for career recognition, lifetime service, outstanding research, and other categories that improve the lives of people with mental illness. Below, you will find a summary of all APA awards.

View awards with approaching nomination deadlines.

Administrative Psychiatry Award

Honors as a role model an APA member and administrator of a major mental health program that has expanded the knowledge of management of mental health service delivery systems.

  • Deadline: July 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Advancing Minority Mental Health, Awards for

Presented by the APA Foundation – recognizes mental health professionals and/or groups for achievements in addressing disparities in mental health.

  • Deadline: February 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Berson Senior Psychiatrist Award

Recognizes an APA Life Member or Life Fellow who has made a significant contribution to psychiatry.

  • Deadline: March 1
  • Eligibility: APA Life Member or Life Fellow

Bland (Irma) Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents

Recognizes excellence in teachers of residency education.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Bolivar (Simon) Award

Honors a prominent advocate for Hispanic mental health.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Person of Hispanic descent

Davis (Carol) Ethics Award

The Carol Davis Ethics Award, established in 2005, promotes the educational role of the ethics process and is presented to an APA member who has authored an outstanding publication on ethics.

  • Deadline: November 15
  • Eligibility: A publication on ethics of psychiatry, the authors of which include at least one APA member.

Distinguished Service Award

Honors individuals and/or organizations who have contributed exceptional meritorious service to the field of psychiatry and/or APA.

  • Deadline: October 31
  • Eligibility: Open

District Branch Best Practice Award

Recognizes district branches that have developed functions and innovative programs that can be adapted by other district branches.

  • Deadline: March 1
  • Eligibility: APA district branch

Fryer (John) Award

Honors an individual whose work has contributed to the improvement of mental health of sexual minority communities.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Fuller (Solomon Carter) Award

Honors a black citizen who has pioneered in an area that has significantly benefited the quality of life of black people.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Person of African descent

Gralnick, MD (Alexander) Award for Research in Schizophrenia

Acknowledges research achievements in the treatment of schizophrenia, emphasizing early diagnosis and treatment and psychosocial aspects of the disease process.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: M.D. or Ph.D.

Guttmacher (Manfred S.) Award

Recognizes an outstanding contribution to the literature of forensic psychiatry presented at any professional meeting or published in the previous year.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Hartford-Jeste Award for Future Leader in Geriatric Psychiatry

Honors noteworthy contributions enhancing the field of geriatric psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Geriatric psychiatrist with a rank no higher than assistant professor

Health Services Research Award

Honors an early career psychiatrist and a senior APA member for outstanding contributions to the field of psychiatric health services research.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: APA member

Ittleson (Blanche) Award for Research in Child/Adolescent Psychiatry

Recognizes a child psychiatrist or group of investigators for outstanding research pertaining to the mental health of children and adolescents.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Child and adolescent psychiatrist or group of psychiatric investigators

Javits (Jacob) Award for Public Service

Recognizes a public servant for contributions to the field of mental health.

  • Deadline: August 31
  • Eligibility: State or federal public servant

Kempf Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry

Recognizes research on the psychobiological, psychological, and/or sociological causes and treatment for schizophrenia. An award goes to a senior researcher and to his/her mentee.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Researcher and his/her Resident-Fellow mentee

Lima (Bruno) Award in Disaster Psychiatry

Recognizes district branch members for outstanding contributions to the care and understanding of the victims of disasters.

  • Deadline: September 8
  • Eligibility: APA member

Marmor (Judd) Award

Honors an individual who has contributed to research advancing the biopsychosocial aspects of psychiatry.

  • Deadline: September 8
  • Eligibility: Open

McGavin (Agnes Purcell) Award for Distinguished Career Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Recognizes outstanding career achievement in child and adolescent psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 15
  • Eligibility: Child and adolescent psychiatrist

McGavin (Agness Purcell) Award for Prevention

Honors a child and adolescent psychiatrist for outstanding work related to the preventive aspects of emotional disorders of childhood.

  • Deadline: August 15
  • Eligibility: Child and adolescent psychiatrist

Menolascino (Frank J.) Award

Recognizes an APA member who has made significant contributions to psychiatric services for persons with intellectual developmental disorders/developmental disabilities.

  • Deadline: July 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Meyer (Adolph) Lectureship

Honors outstanding research investigators from throughout the world.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Open

Mrazek (David) Award

The David A. Mrazek Memorial Award recognizes an outstanding clinician in the field of pharmacogenomics.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Pharmacogenomics clinician

Nasrallah Family Award for Advances in Psychiatric Neuroscience

This award recognizes distinguished contributions to psychiatric neuroscience that have had a major impact on the field and/or altered the practice of psychiatry.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: U.S. or Canadian citizen

Patient Advocacy, Award for

Recognizes a public figure who has promoted the improvement of services for people with mental disorders and substance abuse and who has fought stigma by speaking out about experiences with mental illness and psychiatric treatment.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Open

Pfister (Oskar) Award

Honors an outstanding contributor in the field of psychiatry and religion.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Pierce (Chester) Human Rights Award

Recognizes the extraordinary efforts of an individual or organization to promote human rights of populations with mental health needs.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: Individual or organization

Profile of Courage Award

Recognizes an APA member who has taken, at risk to her or his professional and personal status, an ethical stand against intimidating pressure for the good of patients and in keeping with APA's Principles of Medical Ethics With Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry.

  • Deadline: March 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Psychiatric Services Achievement Awards

Recognizes innovative programs that deliver services to people with mental illness or disabilities, have overcome obstacles, and can serve as models for other programs.

  • Deadline: July 31
  • Eligibility: U.S. or Canadian programs

Ray (Isaac) Award

Recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to forensic psychiatry or to the psychiatric aspects of jurisprudence.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Research Mentorship Award

Honors an academic psychiatrist who has fostered the research of of a student, Resident-Fellow Member, or early career psychiatrist in a significant manner through direct mentorship or by the promotion of novel research-oriented training activities.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: Academic psychiatrist

Research in Psychiatry, Award for

Recognizes a single distinguished contribution, a body of work, or a lifetime contribution that has had a significant impact on the field and/or altered the practice of psychiatry.

  • Deadline: September 30
  • Eligibility: U.S. or Canadian citizen

Resident Recognition Award

Recognizes one outstanding psychiatry resident from every residency program in the U.S. and Canada.

  • Deadline: March 31
  • Eligibility: APA Resident-Fellow Member

Assembly Resident-Fellow Member (RFM) Mentor Award

Recognizes outstanding mentors by the APA Assembly Committee of Resident-Fellow Members.

  • Deadline: March 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Richards (William W. "Bill") Rural Psychiatry Award

Recognizes APA members who have made exemplary contributions to the treatment of patients with mental illness and the practice of psychiatry in rural and/or remote geographic areas.

  • Deadline: Discretion of Area Councils
  • Eligibility: APA member

Roeske (Nancy C.A.) Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education

Honors APA members who have made outstanding and sustaining contributions to medical student education.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: APA member

Rush (Benjamin) Lectureship

Recognizes and individual who has achieved renown for his/her contributions to the history of psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Shellow (Ronald A.) Award

Recognizes departing members of the Assembly who have served the Assembly far beyond the general standards of service.

  • Deadline: March 1
  • Eligibility: APA Assembly member

Soo (Kun-Po) Award

Recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions toward understanding the impact and importance of Asian cultural heritage in areas relevant to psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Open

Sorum (William) Assembly RFM Award

Honors a Resident-Fellow Member (RFM) or a district branch in each Area for having made the most notable progress in RFM involvement and/or representation in APA.

  • Deadline: Discretion of Area Council
  • Eligibility: APA Resident-Fellow Member or APA district branch

Spurlock (Jeanne) Minority Fellowship Achievement Award

Acknowledges achievements of former fellows of the Minority Fellowships Program who have made (or are making) significant contributions to the profession and/or the minority community.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: Past recipient of the APA Minority Fellowship

Symonds (Alexandra) Award

Recognizes a woman psychiatrist who has made significant contributions to promoting women's health and the advancement of women.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Woman psychiatrist

Tarjan (George) Award

Honors a physician who has made significant contributions to the enhancement of the integration of international medical graduates into American psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Physician

Vestermark Psychiatry Educator Award

Recognizes an educator who has made outstanding contributions to undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate education and career development in psychiatry.

  • Deadline: June 1
  • Eligibility: Psychiatric educator

Weinberg (Jack) Memorial Award for Geriatric Psychiatry

Honors a psychiatrist for outstanding work in clinical practice, training, or research in geriatric psychiatry.

  • Deadline: August 1
  • Eligibility: Psychiatrist

Williams (Warren) Assembly Speakers Award

Recognizes outstanding recent activity in or contributions to the field of psychiatry and mental health.

  • Deadline: Discretion of Area Council
  • Eligibility: Open

Nominations Sought

View a summary of awards currently open for nominations.

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Award Recipients

View previous recipients of APA awards.

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