Established 2017
Weill Cornell Medical College
Chairman Philip E. Stieg and the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College have established the Michael L. J. Apuzzo Resident Literature Award for Creativity and Innovation for contributions to the peer-reviewed medical literature.
This prize recognizes outstanding work by a Weill Cornell Medicine neurosurgery resident in either laboratory or clinical research areas that most exemplifies original thinking and is published in a major peer-reviewed journal during the previous academic year.
The prize is named for Michael L. J. Apuzzo, M.D., Adjunct Professor and Senior Consultant at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery. Apuzzo is widely recognized as a pioneer in neurosurgery, and was lauded as neurosurgery’s “primary intellectual catalyst” at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute during the Herbert Olivecrona Medal ceremonies in Stockholm.
Interview: "A Storm of Ideas" Dr. Apuzzo Talks About the Prize Named for Him
A graduate of Yale College, Dr. Apuzzo subsequently had foundational medical training at Boston and McGill Universities. Following periods of fellowship in neurophysiology and neuropathology at the Yale School of Medicine, he completed his neurosurgery training at Yale under the direction William F. Collins, Jr. and William Beecher Scoville.
Apuzzo then engaged in a diverse and highly productive career at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He focused principally on disorders of the human cerebrum and the application of emerging technologies and progressive neuroscience by creative and innovative methods to establish the cutting edge of modernity. These included pioneering works in microsurgery, minimal invasion, endoscopy, image-directed neurosurgery, cerebral navigation, radiosurgery, simulation, operating room design, functional restoration, immunology, molecular biology, and applications of nanotechnology. These activities are documented in more than 800 contributions to the medical literature, including seminal articles and the classic texts “Surgery of the Third Ventricle,” “Brain Surgery: Complication Avoidance and Management,” and “Surgery of the Human Cerebrum.”
Over a four-decade period, Apuzzo’s activities and collective body of work helped to reinvent neurosurgery and earn him iconic historical status. He served as editor in chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Neurosurgery for 19 years. He led the publication into the digital age, founding and developing the groundbreaking Neurosurgery Online and Operative Neurosurgery. These three publications proved to be highly influential and acted as primary initiators in clinical and research areas worldwide.
Later, Dr. Apuzzo was asked to found, direct, and develop World Neurosurgery and World Neurosurgery.org, by the World Federation of Neurological Societies (WFNS). Over a five-year period, the publication rapidly attained a firm place among the leading peer-reviewed journals in clinical neuroscience.
The recipient of numerous major global honors and awards, Apuzzo currently holds several academic appointments that include Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, Yale University; Professor of Advanced Neurosurgery and Translational Neuroscience, The Ohio State University; and Edwin M. Todd/Trent H. Wells, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Neurological Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics at the University of Southern California.
“Original thoughts and new ideas are catalyst for progress,” said Dr. Apuzzo in establishing this new prize.
“The peer-reviewed literature is the documented foundation for medical knowledge and serves as the ground for validation of originality of thought in medicine.”
The inaugural winner of the Michael L. J. Apuzzo Resident Literature Award for Creativity and Innovation was announced on December 11, 2017. Read about Dr. Brenton Pennicooke and the paper that earned him the Apuzzo Award.
2018 Award | 2019 Award | 2020 Award
