José Enrique Cavazos, MD, PhD, will be presented with the 2017 Distinguished Service Award during the American Epilepsy Society’s upcoming annual meeting in Washington, D.C. AES is a medical and scientific society with 4,000 members. Dr. Cavazos will be presented with the award on Friday, December 1, before the Hoyer Lecture at 4 p.m.
Established in 1993, this award recognizes outstanding service by an AES member in the field of epilepsy with an emphasis on exemplary contributions to advancing the mission of the American Epilepsy Society and service to its members. The award includes a $1,000 honorarium, which Dr. Cavazos is donating to the AES Junior Mexican Epileptologists travel award endowment fund.
"I am deeply humble and honored for being selected the 2017 Distinguished Service Awardee by my core professional society. I have been passionate about participating in AES since I attended my first meeting in 1989. It is wonderful to serve in a professional society where so many other amazing scientists and physicians are working eagerly toward the same goal of improving the lives of people with epilepsy," Dr. Cavazos said.
Dr. José Cavazos is Professor and Assistant Dean for the MD/PhD Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio™. He has performed extensive professional service to the epilepsy community as a member of NIH Study Sections and Panels for more than 15 years—helping draft the law that created the VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence, participating in FDA panels for epilepsy drugs and devices, serving as an editorial board member of Epilepsy Research and Epilepsy and Behavior, and chair of the AES committees for Student and Resident Education, Technology and Web Content, and the 2010 Scientific Meeting in San Antonio. He created and funded the Partnering Epilepsy Centers in the Americas (PECA) project with more than 35 partnerships between epilepsy centers in Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America. He has also served as ILAE's treasurer for the North American Commission for the most recent quadrennium.
Dr. Cavazos was born in Monterrey, Mexico, where he later attended medical school. He graduated as a physician and surgeon with honors from the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, and then pursued a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Sutula. He completed a neurology residency and a clinical neurophysiology/ epilepsy fellowship at Duke University Medical Center.