Dr. Scott Swartzwelder, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, has received the 2017 Bowles Award from the UNC School of Medicine’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. The award honors distinguished researchers who have made significant contributions to understanding the causes, prevention and/or treatment of alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
“Each year, we honor the best and brightest in alcohol research,” said Dr. Fulton T. Crews, director of the Bowles Center. “We are pleased this year to recognize Dr. Swartzwelder and his outstanding work.”
The Bowles Award was introduced in 1997. Awardees are invited to visit the Center, present a lecture and meet with investigators and trainees to share knowledge and innovative ideas. Swartzwelder delivered this year’s Bowles lecture, “Alcohol, Adolescence and Adulthood: There and Back Again,” on Oct. 9.
Swartzwelder is known internationally for research on adolescent drinking and its negative effects in adulthood. Some of his most recent publications address alcohol-related memory blackouts among college students and the enduring effects of adolescent alcohol exposure on memory-related brain function in adulthood. He is a principal investigator in the national UNC-led research consortium, Neurobiology of Adolescent Drinking in Adulthood (NADIA).
“We have followed the work of Dr. Swartzwelder and his team for many years,” said Dr. Leslie Morrow, associate director of the Bowles Center and administrator for the Bowles Award. “He embodies the highest standards of academic research and possesses an unwavering commitment to enhance our knowledge of the disease of alcoholism and its effects on young people.”
Awardees receive a $5,000 prize and an award plaque, as well as an acknowledgement on the Center website, in perpetuity. Recipients are selected by researchers at the Bowles Center, with input from external advisory board members.
About the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies
The Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, part of the UNC School of Medicine, was founded in 1970 through the efforts of Dr. John A. Ewing, who served as its first director, and N.C. Sen. Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles. Its mission is to conduct, coordinate, and promote basic and clinical research on the causes, prevention, and treatment of alcoholism and alcoholic disease.