ISSPD Awards
To be presented at the International Congress of the ISSPD November 2025
Due: 30 April 2025
Dear Colleague,
The International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (isspd.com) calls for nominations for the following five ISSPD Awards. Nominations can be from an individual, groups, or self-nomination.
Please scroll down to see the awards available for nomination.
To nominate for an award, please submit:
- the name of the award
- the name of the candidate to be considered for the award
- the name and position of the person nominating
- a one page (approx) letter to the ISSPD Board addressing how the candidate meets the criteria for the award and any other reasons for the nomination. It is usual for candidates to be nominated by a peer or mentor with whom they have collaborated thus are sufficiently familiar with the nominee’s work to serve as an effective nominator.
- the full CV of the candidate and their agreement to be considered for the award.
DEADLINE: 30 April 2025
Email nominations to
ISSPD Board
c/o Dr Sharon Nelson, ISSPD Secretary/Treasurer
Subject: ISSPD Award Nomination
The Board will consider nominations and make a final decision. Winners will be announced at congress in Boston, November 2025.
ISSPD Awards
John G. Gunderson Distinguished Career Contribution Award
This senior career award recognizes senior investigators in the field of personality disorder whose work has had major and sustained influence in the field. We are interested in recognizing candidates who have made both important and sustained impacts on the field. It is named in honour of the late John Gunderson, a long-time ISSPD member who contributed highly influential and important foundational work in the field. Senior investigators should be 15+ years post the obtainment of a Ph.D., M.D. or similar level degree (e.g., Ed.D., D.S.W) and/or be full professors of psychiatry or psychology, or the equivalent.
Early Career Contribution Award
This young investigator award recognizes early career scholars who have made contributions in the area of personality disorders and whose productivity and trajectory suggest that they will continue to make notable professional and scientific contributions. Early career is defined as within 10 years of the obtainment of a Ph.D., M.D., or similar level degree (e.g., Ed.D., D.S.W) and are expected to be assistant professors of psychiatry or psychology, or the equivalent.
Ken Silk Distinguished Service Award
This award recognises people who have made a sustained and lasting contribution to the field of personality disorders and the ISSPD with regards service. It is named in honour of the late Ken Silk, a long-time ISSPD Secretary-Treasurer and active board member. Thus, whereas The John Gunderson Distinguished Career Award focuses on those who made sustained and lasting contributions to the field with regard to research, the Ken Silk Award focuses on sustained and lasting contributions to the field with regard to service.
Perry Hoffman Award for Community Service and Research
This award is named in honour of the late Dr Perry Hoffman, who pioneered bringing awareness to the suffering and importance of supporting family members of those with Borderline personality disorder and related problems. She was recognized world-wide for her advocacy in the scientific community to build programs to help family members and measure the impact that interventions have on them. There are two separate but related areas to which an individual or group may be nominated: (a) for Community Service - This recognises a person with lived experience, family member, or a professional or community organization that contributes consistently to improving the lives of people with BPD and of their families in the community or (b) for Research - this recognises a person whose research helps us to understand the problems of families with a member with BPD, or the development of effective psychosocial interventions to improve the family life of people with BPD, or psychosocial aspects of problems related to BPD. The following areas will also be taken into consideration: a collaborative approach that brings together lived experience, family members, clinicians, and researchers - or - research with an emphasis on prevention, early diagnosis or early intervention, or destigmatizing BPD.
Past Award Winners
John G. Gunderson Distinguished Career Contribution Award:
(Senior Career Award)
1997. Ted Millon
1999 John G. Gunderson
2001 Erik Simonsen
2003 Elsa Ronningstam
2005 Otto F. Kernberg
2007 Sven Torgersen
2009 John Livesley
2011 Larry Siever
2013 Ken Silk
2015 Peter Fonagy and Andrew M. Chanen
2017 Mary Zanarini
(Renamed Gunderson Award)
2019 – Lee Anna Clark
2021 – Marsha Linehan
2023 - Anthony Bateman
Ken Silk Distinguished Service Award:
2019 – Elsa Ronningstam
2021 – Sabine Herpertz
2023 - Erik Simonsen
Early Career Contribution Award:
2009 Eric Fertuck
2015 Chris Hopwood
2017 Katja Bertsch
2019 Johannes Zimmerman
2021 Lori Scott and Inga Niedtfeld
2023 Annegret Krause-Utz and Christopher Conway
Perry Hoffman Award - For Community Service or Community Research:
2021 Valarie Porr (Community Service) and the Sashbear Foundation (Community Service)
2023 Paula Tusiani-Eng (Community Service) and Andrew Chanen (Community Research)