PRESS RELEASE
LONDON, July 12, 2026 — The Alzheimer’s Association® presented eight scientific awards at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® 2026 (AAIC®), recognizing researchers for their expertise, noteworthy achievements and innovative contributions to the field of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia science.
“As we gather for AAIC 2026, we are proud to celebrate the scientific pioneers whose groundbreaking work is accelerating progress across Alzheimer’s research, treatment and care,” said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association chief science officer and medical affairs lead. “Their remarkable achievements and unwavering dedication inspire all of us and as we work to provide hope for the millions of people and families affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”
AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards
The AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards are named in honor of Henry Wisniewski, M.D., Ph.D.; Khalid Iqbal, Ph.D.; and Bengt Winblad, M.D., Ph.D. — co-founders of the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, now known as the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. These awards honor significant contributions to Alzheimer’s and dementia research, either through a single scientific discovery or a body of work.
Linda Van Eldik, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the director of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, co-director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, and professor of Neuroscience at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. A world-renowned researcher and leader, Van Eldik has pioneered key insights into neuroinflammatory mechanisms of Alzheimer’s. Her research is paving the way toward novel therapeutics to harness the brain’s immune system to reduce Alzheimer’s damage while keeping its normal and beneficial functions intact. She has received a number of honors and awards, including a Zenith Award and Part the Cloud Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and an NIA MERIT award. She is a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging.
William Jagust, M.D., is the recipient of the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. Following his training in neurology, Jagust was a postdoctoral fellow in medical imaging and subsequently joined the faculty at the UC Davis School of Medicine where he founded the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and served as chair of the Department of Neurology. In 2003, he moved to UC Berkeley and established his laboratory using multimodal imaging tools to investigate brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. He established the Berkeley Aging Cohort Study to investigate the evolution of brain changes in aging and the transition to Alzheimer’s disease, and is currently the leader of the PET Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and Principal Investigator of the SCAN initiative. His work in molecular neuroimaging has transformed how Alzheimer’s disease is understood, helping establish amyloid and tau PET as essential tools for defining disease biology and its progression long before clinical symptoms emerge, insights that have shaped modern clinical trial design.
Adesola Ogunniyi, M.D., is the recipient of the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award. Ogunniyi is an emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has led groundbreaking cross-cultural studies in Africa spanning four decades. His work has established prevalence and incidence rates, identified risk factors and outcomes, and compared indigenous African populations with African Americans, including the role of vascular factors in cognitive impairment and dementia. His recent focus is on bringing together researchers and groups in a multidisciplinary framework to enhance dementia science, care and control in Africa. He is also working on elucidating the genetic basis of Alzheimer’s disease in diverse populations in the DAWN Project. Ogunniyi has received numerous awards including the 1991 Bruce Schoenberg Award of the American Academy of Neurology, and the Lifetime Award of the Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science in 2024. He is a member of the World Dementia Council and the Global Council on Brain Health, and has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications.
Bill Thies Award
The Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART (the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment) recognizes a Society member who has provided continued and outstanding service and mentorship to the ISTAART community. The award honors William (Bill) Thies, Ph.D., who passed away in August 2020. During his tenure from 1998 to 2020 as the Alzheimer’s Association chief medical and scientific officer, and then as senior science advisor, Thies was instrumental in bringing AAIC under the Association’s management. He launched the peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia®: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Alzheimer’s Association Research Roundtable.
Ganesh Babulal, Ph.D., OTD, MSCI, MOT, OTR/L, is the recipient of the 2026 Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART. Babulal is a professor in the departments of Neurology and Quantitative Health Sciences at the Mayo Clinic and director of The DRIVES Project and ARCHES laboratories. Babulal’s research program characterizes functional changes in dementia using conventional biomarkers (imaging, cerebrospinal fluid, plasma) and digital sensor-based technology, develops precision AI models of decline using complex instrumental activities of daily living, quantifies structural and social determinants of health across the life course to predict dementia risk, and assesses the impact of multidimensional deprivation in low- and middle-income countries on brain health. Babulal’s leadership of ISTAART has spanned the Neuropsychiatric Syndromes and the Diversity and Disparities PIAs, the latter whose Executive Committee he also Chaired. He co-created and led the Low- and Middle-Income Countries Working Group within this PIA, an effort that has been instrumental within ISTAART to increase participation of investigators from the Global South. In addition he served as a member of the ISTAART Advisory Council. He also is an AARF grant awardee, a reviewer and Associate editor for Alzheimer’s and Dementia, and an Alzheimer’s Association grant reviewer and IRGP council member and serves as an AAIC abstract reviewer.
Inge-Grundke-Iqbal Award
Dag Aarsland, M.D., is this year’s recipient of the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research. As director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Aging at King’s College London, Dag Aarsland’s research focuses on aging neuropsychiatry and neurodegenerative disorders. Throughout his career he has led multinational studies that have shaped our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease dementia and Lewy body dementia. In addition to his lengthy list of achievements, he is known among his peers for being guided by humanity, integrity and commitment to his patients, and his deep commitment to mentoring students, early-career researchers and young clinicians. Aarsland has held professorships at Karolinska Institutet, the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and University of Stavanger. With over 600 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as Lancet Neurology, Brain, and Alzheimer’s & Dementia, his research has shaped clinical guidelines and biomarker development and diagnostics and treatment and prevention of dementia. Aarsland was also a founding Chair of the Lewy Body Dementias PIA of ISTAART.
De Leon Prizes in Neuroimaging
The de Leon Prizes in Neuroimaging recognize scientists from ISTAART’s community of researchers and clinicians judged to have published “best papers” in the field of neuroimaging of neurodegenerative processes. The awards are named after Mony J. de Leon, Ed.D., professor of psychiatry and director, Center for Brain Health at NYU Langone Health, and one of the founders of the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium. The 2026 de Leon Prize honorees are:
About the Alzheimer's Association International Conference® (AAIC®)
The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world’s largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer’s and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.
Alzheimer’s Association: alz.org
AAIC: alz.org/aaic
AAIC newsroom: alz.org/AAICpress
AAIC 2026 hashtag: #AAIC26
About the Alzheimer's Association®
The Alzheimer’s Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Our mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer’s and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia®. Visit alz.org or call +1 800.272.3900.
Media Contacts:
Alzheimer’s Association Media Line, +1 312.335.4078, media@alz.org
AAIC Press Office, aaicmedia@alz.org