Annual Awards

RSA Annual Awards

Each year, at the Annual Meeting, the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) honors distinguished members whose contributions have made a lasting impact on the field of alcohol research. Presented below are details regarding each award, along with a record of past recipients.

Nomination Process

The call for nominations, including eligibility criteria, opens each October in conjunction with the opening of Submissions for the Annual Meeting . Completed nominations must be submitted by January 30 at 5:00 PM ET.

Purpose of Nominations

The RSA Awards program provides an opportunity to formally recognize colleagues whose achievements exemplify excellence in alcohol research. Submitting a nomination is one of the most meaningful ways to acknowledge professional distinction and service within our field. Nominations not selected in a given year will remain eligible for consideration for up to three years.

Please note: Only current RSA Members are eligible to submit nominations.

Celebrate the accomplishments of your colleagues and help ensure their contributions to alcohol research are recognized and remembered.

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Annual Awards

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RSA Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognizes a person with who has had a long, balanced career including contributions to alcohol research, training, service and advocacy. These contributions (whether they have been in research, policy, leadership or administrative) must have had a lasting impact on the alcohol research field.

Nominations for this award are accepted from RSA members only. Non-members nominated will be considered but are not encouraged. All scientists except the immediate-past president and the current president, secretary and treasurer of the RSA are eligible. Past RSA Distinguished Researcher Awardees are eligible once 5 years have passed since receipt of the award.

Recipients of this award will receive a plaque at the RSA Annual Meeting and an honorarium is provided via bill.com after the conclusion of the meeting.

Previous recipients of this award are:

Thomas Turner (1996)
Harold Holder (2005)
Enoch Gordis (2006)
Steven W. Leslie (2007)
Robert Voas (2008)
Victor Hesselbrock (2010)
Arthur Cederbaum (2011)
Floyd Bloom (2012)
Ting-Kai Li (2013)
Kenneth Warren (2014)
Emanuel Rubin / Boris Tabakoff (2015)
Raul Caetano (2016)
Samuel French (2017)
Linda Spear (2018)
Constance Weisner (2019)
Harriet de Wit (2020)
Raye Litten (2021)
Adolf Pfefferbaum (2022)
Edward Riley (2023)
A. Leslie Morrow (2024)
Edith Sullivan (2025)

RSA Distinguished Researcher Award

This award honors a senior researcher who has made outstanding scientific contributions to the field of alcohol research. The recipient will have demonstrated a sustained, long-term commitment to advancing alcohol-related science and will possess a substantial record of scholarly publication in the field.

All scientists are eligible, with the exception of the immediate past president and the current president, secretary, and treasurer of the Research Society on Alcohol.

Nominations will be accepted from RSA members only. While nominations of non-members will be reviewed, preference will be given to nominees who are RSA members.

The award will alternate annually between recipients representing psychosocial, sociological, and clinical research (even years) and those representing biomedical, basic, and biological human research (odd years).

Recipients of this award will receive a plaque at the RSA Annual Meeting and will present a plenary lecture during the meeting in the year of the award. An honorarium is provided via bill.com after the conclusion of the meeting.

Previous recipients of this award are:

Charles S. Lieber (1980)
Dora Goldstein (1981)
Ting-Kai Li (1982)
Harold Kalant (1983)
Richard A. Deitrich (1984)
David H. Van Thiel (1985)
Marcus A. Rothschild (1986)
Steven Schenker (1987)
Boris Tabakoff (1988)
Jack Mendelson / Nancy K. Mello (1989)
Yedy Israel (1990)
Lawrence Lumeng (1991)
Henri Begleiter (1992)
Marc A. Schuckit (1993)
Ivan Diamond (1994)
Nelson Butters (1995)
John Crabbe (1996)
Oscar Parsons (1997)
Carrie Randall (1998)
R. Adron Harris (1999)
Herman H. Samson (2000)
James West / V. Gene Erwin (2001)
George Koob (2002)

Andrew Heath (2003)
G. Alan Marlatt (2004)
Edward Riley (2005)
Peter Monti (2006)
Fulton T. Crews (2007)
Kenneth Sher (2008)
Howard Edenberg (2009)
Robert Zucker (2010)
Adolf Pfefferbaum / Edith V. Sullivan (2011)
Richard Saitz (2012)
Paula Hoffman (2013)
Cindy Ehlers (2014)
David Goldman (2015)
Richard Longabaugh (2016)
Dipak Sarkar (2017)
Stephanie O'Malley (2018)
Tatiana Foroud (2019)
Rajita Sinha (2020)
Robert Messing (2021)
Paul Gruenewald (2022)
Subhash Pandey (2023)
Bernice Porjesz (2024)
Markus Heilig (2025)

RSA Early Career Investigator Award

This award honors an Early Career Investigator (formerly Young Investigator Award) who has demonstrated research excellence, strong potential for future leadership, and a sustained commitment to the field of alcohol research.

Eligibility: Nominees must be within 10 years of the following milestones:

For PhD recipients: from the start of postdoctoral training (i.e., following the conferral of the PhD).
For MD recipients: from the completion of residency training (i.e., at the start of the first postdoctoral fellowship).

Nominations must be submitted by current RSA members. Nominees must also be RSA members and actively engaged in alcohol research.

The award alternates annually between research domains:

Odd years: Psychosocial, sociological, and clinical research.
Even years: Biomedical, basic, and biological human research.

Recognition: Recipients receive a commemorative plaque during the RSA Annual Meeting and are invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the following year’s meeting. An honorarium is provided via Bill.com after the meeting concludes.