ORLANDO, Fla. ― Matthias J. Koepp, MD, PhD, was presented with the 2023 Clinical Science Research Award during the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES). The Research Recognition Awards are the Society's highest research awards to encourage and recognize active basic science and clinical investigators whose research contributes importantly to understanding and conquering epilepsy. After studying medicine in Berlin between 1984 and 1989, Dr. Koepp trained as a neurologist with Dieter Janz and Sibylle Ried and received his MD from the Free University of Berlin in 1991. In 1993, he moved to London to pursue additional training in neurology and to complete his PhD in 1999 at the University College London (UCL) Queen Square Institute of Neurology under the supervision of John Duncan, his long-term mentor, with a special focus on neuroimaging in epilepsy.
He then was appointed National Society for Epilepsy senior lecturer in epilepsy at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology. In 2008, he was promoted to professor of neurology at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Dr. Koepp directs a clinical practice overseeing 2,000 people annually in parallel with a research group focused on characterizing mechanisms of comorbidities to predict cognitive, mood and seizure outcome following both surgical and pharmaceutical interventions. Currently, he is primary investigator, jointly with Eugen Trinka, on the first anti-epileptogenesis trial in post-stroke epilepsy. Jointly with Maria Thom, he also leads a research program into dementia in epilepsy.
Dr. Koepp has been an AES member since 1994. He has contributed to the work of the AES-Investigator’s Workshop Organizing Committee as member and chair, and led the Frontal Lobe and Neuroimaging special interest groups. For his research and impact on the care of people with epilepsy, he received several international awards, including the AES Young Investigator Award in 1997, Michael-Prize in 2001 and International League Against Epilepsy Ambassador for Epilepsy Award in 2019.