The Life Watch Award 2017 to Maj-Britt Posserud

Maj-Britt Posserud, medical doctor and professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Bergen, is awarded The Life Watch Award 2017.

Motivation of the jury:

”Maj-Britt Posserud has been awarded the 2017 LifeWatch Award for her outstanding research in the field of autism spectrum disorders. Her research has decisevely increased understanding of autism symptoms in the population, as well as the contribution of comorbidity and thus had an impact on clinical work”.

Professor Maj-Britt Posserud, University of Bergen, has received the Niclas Öberg Foundation Life Watch Award 2017 of 300 000 SEK. The award is given to an outstanding researcher in the field of autism. Maj-Britt Posserud has been central to establishing research on autism in Bergen through her work in the Bergen Child Study. BCS being a total population study of all children in Bergen 7-9 years old, her work has provided unique insights on the distribution of autism symptoms in the general population with implications for the conceptualisation of autism spectrum disorders. The BCS studies have also been important in validating clinical research findings in the general population.

”It is fantastic to get such an acknowledgement, especially because it increases focus on research in the field of mental health which is often overshadowed by research on cancer and other somatic health problems. The prize of the Niclas Öberg Foundation Life Watch therefore has tremendous impact beyond the financial contribution” Posserud comments, who plans to use the award to establish a research group on autism in Bergen.

K1 GRATULERER!