Each year at its Annual Meeting, ISTSS presents awards in recognition of achievements made in the field of traumatic stress studies. The 2007 awards ceremony was held Thursday evening, November 15, in the Grand Ballroom of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Details of individual award recipients will be featured in this publication throughout the year, beginning with the Lifetime Achievement Award in this issue. Award winners were announced in the October issue of StressPoints.
Arieh Shalev, MD, is the 2007 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor given by ISTSS. It is awarded to the individual who has made great lifetime contributions to the field of traumatic stress. A prominent psychiatrist and researcher, Shalev has stood as a leading figure in the field for more than 30 years.
Among many other accomplishments, Dr. Shalev is professor of psychiatry and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, and is the founding director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress at the same hospital.
He is the editor and co-founder of Sihot (Dialogue), the Israel Journal of Psychotherapy. In addition, he has published two books, “Traumatic Stress and its Consequences: A Primer for Helping Professionals,” and “International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma,” along with countless articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Arieh Shalev accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award from then-ISTSS President Elana Newman
Dr. Shalev's research has focused on the etiology, course and treatment of PTSD in adults. According to Rivka Tuval Mashiach, PhD, of the Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Israel, “Dr. Shalev is studying stress and the sequel of responses to trauma using longitudinal approaches. Using a prospective design, he became one of the experts on early responses to trauma, and on evaluation and treatment in the acute phase following traumatic events. His studies include the course of early symptoms, the psychophysiology of evolving PTSD, responses to the trauma of terrorism, evidence–based treatments for PTSD, and genetic markers of persistent PTSD symptoms.”
His research has been tremendously influential on the traumatic stress community in Israel and internationally. A well-respected pioneer in his field, he has received numerous grants, including several from NIH/NIMH.
Dr. Shalev earned his MD at the Faculté de Medecine in Montpellier, France. He has taught at the Tel Aviv School of Medicine, New York Medical College, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
ISTSS previously granted Dr. Shalev the Robert S. Laufer Memorial Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in the Field of PTSD in 1995. He has also received the Meritorious Service Award from the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences, and the Weiler Award from the Israel Ministry of Justice.
His commitment to understanding the nature of trauma and its effects makes him a truly deserving winner of ISTSS's top honor.