Will Spaulding recognized for major contributions to the study of schizophrenia

Will Spaulding
Will Spaulding and colleagues celebrate

Will Spaulding, Professor of Psychology in the Clinical Program, received The Kraepelin-Alzheimer Medal in Munich, Germany, where he was an invited speaker at a symposium on schizophrenia in September. The award cites Spaulding’s “excellent research on treatment and rehabilitation of schizophrenia.” Emil Kraepelin was a scientist and physician who is considered the father of modern psychiatry. He was the first to identify the disorder that came to be known as schizophrenia. More familiar to most is the name of Alois Alzheimer, Kraepelin’s departmental colleague, who described the brain disease that today bears his name. Kraepelin and Alzheimer presided over the dawn of modern brain research at the turn of the 20th century, in a department that included many names familiar to modern neuroscientists, including Franz Nissl, who developed microscopic techniques that made it possible to see within individual brain cells, and Frederic Lewy, who discovered the molecular basis of Parkinson’s and other brain diseases. The symposium at which Spaulding was awarded the Medal was held in the very building at the University of Munich where Kraepelin and his colleagues did their work.