The Child Neurology Foundation announces the award of a research grant in the field of child neurology to be made at the Child Neurology Society meeting in the fall of 2009. The selected investigator will receive a two-year grant of $50,000 per year. The award will be called the Shields Fellowship Award and is supported by the Winokur Family Foundation. The CNF Shields Fellowship Award provides two years of funding at $50,000 per year to support translational or clinical research to a child neurologist early in his/her academic career. The Foundation recognizes that development of clinicianresearchers is extremely important to the field of child neurology. A junior faculty member who has developed clinical research skills, and has a plan for further development of that research or has basic science research skills related to child neurology, and who has a plan to translate the new knowledge into clinical care for children with neurologic diseases would be eligible for this award.Candidates for the award are asked to submit brief letters of intent which will be scored by members of the CNF Scientifi c Award Committee. The committee that reviews the applications includes child neurologists who are also successful scientists, including several who have been recipients of CNF awards. In addition to scientific criteria such as the soundness of the hypothesis, feasibility, and relevance to clinical pediatric neurological disorders, reviewers look for evidence that the award will have a major career impact.
Shields Fellowship Award Recipient 2007
Christopher Giza, M.D.
Christopher Giza graduated from Dartmouth College in 1986 with high honors in Biochemistry. He received his M.D. from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1990 and was elected to membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. After his internship at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Giza completed his residency training in Adult Neurology at UCLA and followed this with a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Neurology, also at UCLA. Dr. Giza then entered private neurology practice in southern California, while spending his summers as a member of the Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) team and gaining first-hand experience of traumatic injuries in the field. In 1998, he returned to UCLA for a postdoctoral research fellowship in Neuroscience at the Brain Injury Research Center and UCLA Neurotrauma laboratory. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Divisions of Neurosurgery and Pediatric Neurology in 2001. He now supervises a team of basic science researchers investigating the physiologic and molecular response of the developing brain to traumatic injury and is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. His current laboratory interests include neuroplasticity, recovery from injury, mild concussive injury and brain development. He also currently runs a clinical Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) program at UCLA that involves neurologic follow-up of head-injured children from the Intensive Care Unit, through hospital discharge and to the outpatient clinic. Dr. Giza has also initiated a collaboration with colleagues in neuropsychology, radiology, pediatrics, neurosurgery and pediatric neurology to investigate longitudinal changes in brain structure and function in children and adolescents following TBI, with the ultimate goal of translating the laboratory advances into improved patient care for these patients. His current position is Associate Professor of Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery, and he is also on the faculty of the Interdepartmental Programs for Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.
The Child Neurology Foundation announces the award of a research grant in the field of child neurology to be made at the Child Neurology Society meeting in the fall of 2009. The selected investigator will receive a two-year grant of $50,000 per year. The award will be called the Shields Fellowship Award and is supported by the Winokur Family Foundation. The CNF Shields Fellowship Award provides two years of funding at $50,000 per year to support translational or clinical research to a child neurologist early in his/her academic career. The Foundation recognizes that development of clinicianresearchers is extremely important to the field of child neurology. A junior faculty member who has developed clinical research skills, and has a plan for further development of that research or has basic science research skills related to child neurology, and who has a plan to translate the new knowledge into clinical care for children with neurologic diseases would be eligible for this award.Candidates for the award are asked to submit brief letters of intent which will be scored by members of the CNF Scientifi c Award Committee. The committee that reviews the applications includes child neurologists who are also successful scientists, including several who have been recipients of CNF awards. In addition to scientific criteria such as the soundness of the hypothesis, feasibility, and relevance to clinical pediatric neurological disorders, reviewers look for evidence that the award will have a major career impact.
Christopher Giza graduated from Dartmouth College in 1986 with high honors in Biochemistry. He received his M.D. from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1990 and was elected to membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. After his internship at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Giza completed his residency training in Adult Neurology at UCLA and followed this with a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Neurology, also at UCLA. Dr. Giza then entered private neurology practice in southern California, while spending his summers as a member of the Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) team and gaining first-hand experience of traumatic injuries in the field. In 1998, he returned to UCLA for a postdoctoral research fellowship in Neuroscience at the Brain Injury Research Center and UCLA Neurotrauma laboratory. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Divisions of Neurosurgery and Pediatric Neurology in 2001. He now supervises a team of basic science researchers investigating the physiologic and molecular response of the developing brain to traumatic injury and is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. His current laboratory interests include neuroplasticity, recovery from injury, mild concussive injury and brain development. He also currently runs a clinical Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) program at UCLA that involves neurologic follow-up of head-injured children from the Intensive Care Unit, through hospital discharge and to the outpatient clinic. Dr. Giza has also initiated a collaboration with colleagues in neuropsychology, radiology, pediatrics, neurosurgery and pediatric neurology to investigate longitudinal changes in brain structure and function in children and adolescents following TBI, with the ultimate goal of translating the laboratory advances into improved patient care for these patients. His current position is Associate Professor of Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery, and he is also on the faculty of the Interdepartmental Programs for Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.