The 2026 Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize Awarded to Amy Arnsten
WASHINGTON, D.C. — SfN member Amy Arnsten, PhD, Albert E. Kent professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Yale University School of Medicine, is the recipient of the Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize 2026. Arnsten is recognized for her foundational work in understanding the distinctive molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms that underlie executive brain functions. Her work has transformed understanding of how recently evolved prefrontal cortical circuits support working memory, abstract thought, and goal-directed behavior, and how these circuits are dynamically regulated by neuromodulatory systems and vulnerable to disruption by stress, aging, and disease.
Arnsten has been recognized for her scientific contributions in many ways. For example, she earned an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2013), was awarded the Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience (2015), and was elected as a Member of the National Academy of Medicine (2017). Her work exemplifies successful translation of basic neuroscience discoveries into clinical advances, including the approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2009 of guanfacine (IntunivTM), a treatment to strengthen prefrontal cortical function in disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and now used off-label to treat delirium, traumatic brain injury, long-COVID and the cognitive biotype of depression.
The Prize, named after German neuroscientist Peter H. Seeburg, a pioneer in molecular neurobiology, recognizes outstanding advances in understanding executive brain functions and cognitive processes. Seeburg championed the integration of molecular and cellular mechanisms within circuit and systems frameworks to explain complex behavior. The Prize honors researchers who continue this tradition by linking fundamental biological processes to cognition, emotion, learning, memory, attention, and decision-making.
In even years, the Prize is presented at the FENS Forum, with the 2026 award ceremony taking place, July 7th at the FENS Forum in Barcelona, Spain. In odd years, the Prize is presented at the SfN annual meeting. The recipient receives a $100,000 prize.
The Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize 2026 is permanently endowed by the Schaller-Nikolich Foundation and awarded in association with the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and SfN. Applications for the 2028 Prize will open in early spring.
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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of over 30,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system.
