Jacqueline A. French, MD, will receive the William G. Lennox Award for lifetime accomplishments in epilepsy from the American Epilepsy Society during the society’s upcoming meeting in Washington D.C. AES is a medical and scientific society with 4,000 members. Dr. French will be presented with the award on Saturday, December 2, at 8:30 a.m. before the Presidential Symposium.
“I am so honored to receive this award,” said Dr French. "It is wonderful to be recognized by your peers, for doing work that you are passionate about. New therapies have the potential to make real differences in the lives of people with epilepsy, and I am happy to have contributed to that”.
The William G. Lennox Award was established in 1966 to recognize members of the American Epilepsy Society who have a record of lifetime contributions and accomplishments related to epilepsy. The award is funded by the Lennox and Lombroso Trust Fund, established in 1962 to advance and disseminate knowledge of epilepsy in all its aspects—biological, clinical and social—and to promote better care and treatment for persons with epilepsy. The award includes a $10,000 honorarium.
Dr. French is a professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone Health, in the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and founder/director of the Epilepsy Study Consortium. She currently serves as the Epilepsy Foundation Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. French is internationally known for her research efforts on development of new therapeutics for epilepsy and new methodologies for clinical trials. She has served as the principal investigator for a number of recent trials leading to regulatory approval of new antiepileptic drugs, and has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and edited two books.
Dr. French is active in creating guidelines and classifications for the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the International League Against Epilepsy. She chaired an AAN/AES committee that produced two widely quoted guidelines on the use of new antiepileptic drugs. She served as chair of the ILAE North American Regional Commission, and Commission on Therapeutic Strategies. Dr. French is a past president of AES and is the 2005 recipient of the AES Service Award and the 2013 Epilepsy Foundation Hero award.
Dr. French trained in neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital, and did her fellowship training in EEG and epilepsy at Mount Sinai and Yale University.