The deadline for the 2027 award cycle has passed. Nominations for the 2028 award cycle will open in Spring 2026.
The Presidential
Scholar Award is presented biannually at the Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting in spring and the Annual Pain Medicine Meeting in fall.
Members are asked to nominate mid-career, qualified physicians whose research has had or will have meaningful impact on the clinical practice or scientific direction of regional anesthesia and/or pain medicine.
The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Presidential Scholar Award recognizes members who have demonstrated outstanding scientific and sustained contributions to regional anesthesia and pain medicine in the last 10 years.
Selection Criteria
The Presidential Scholar Award is for recognition of an individual’s work. Individuals may only receive the award once.
Nominees are required to be:
- Actively involved in research and academically accomplished.
- Able to demonstrate a track record of high impact publication and have built a significant body of work on a topic relevant to regional anesthesia and/or pain medicine.
- Must be a mid-career physician (e.g., associate or assistant professor, not full professor).
- Active, regular members of ASRA Pain Medicine.
- Actively engaged with demonstrated contributions to ASRA Pain Medicine.
Rakesh V. Sondekoppam, MBBS
2025 Presidential Scholar Award Recipient
Mark C. Bicket, MD, PhD, FASA
2024 Presidential Scholar Award Recipient
Past Winners
| 2018 | De QH Tran, MD, FRCPC |
| 2019 | Chad Brummett, MD |
| 2020 | Richard Brull, MD |
| 2021 | Kevin Vorenkamp, MD & Ki Jinn Chin, MBBS (Hons), MMed, FANZCA, FRCPC |
| 2022 | Lynn Kohan, MD |
| 2023 | Andrea Chadwick, MD |
| 2024 | Vishal Uppal, MBBS, FRCA & Mark C. Bicket, MD, PhD, FASA |
| 2025 | Rakesh V. Sondekoppam, MBBS |