Boehringer Ingelheim announces winner of FENS award

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that Pascal Fries has won the 2008 FENS Research Award.

Dr Fries of the FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neruoimaging in Nijmegen, the Netherlands was given the award at the congress of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) taking place this week in Geneva.

The award is donated by Boehringer Ingelheim together with 25,000 euros (19,950 pounds) in prize money to young scientists in Europe engaged in exceptional research in neuroscience.

It aims to encourage potential patient benefits by creating value through innovation.

Dr Fries received the award for his work on the neurobiological organisation of human perception, researching how perception is influenced by attention and the neural mechanisms that instantiate these functions.

Dr Bernd Sommmer, head of CNS diseases research at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: “We again demonstrate Boehringer Ingelheim’s commitment to basic research in the area of neuroscience.”

He added that the company is glad to be able to support the discovery and explanations of basic principles in neuroscience independently from its work in pharmaceutical drug discovery.

Earlier this month, Boehringer Ingelheim revealed the retirement of Dr Alessandro Banchi as chairman of its board of managing directors and his replacement by vice-chairman Dr Andreas Barner.