The Canada FASD Research Network is pleased to announce the selection of the recipient of the Dr. Sterling Clarren Research Award. The Award has been named in honor of Dr. Sterling Clarren to recognize his pioneering contribution and leadership in the field of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of a completed study that has made a substantial contribution to understanding the human dimensions FASD.

This year’s recipient is Dr. Angelina Paolozza. Dr. Paolozza completed her PhD at Queen’s University under the supervision of Dr. James Reynolds. She worked on a pan-Canadian, multi-site study funded by NeuroDevNet which investigated multiple research techniques to further the development of objective, low-cost, and high-throughput tools for large scale screening of clinical populations which may help streamline the diagnostic process. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto researching typical motor and visual development in infants.

The award will be presented to Dr. Paolozza at the 7th National Biennial Conference on Adolescents and Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Vancouver on Friday April 8 at 9:40am, and she will be making a presentation later that day from 3:10-4:40pm. Dr. Paolozza’s talk will focus on the results of a multi-site investigation of the functional outcomes of children and adolescents with FASD obtained using psychometric testing and eye movement control tasks across Canada, and how these outcomes correlate to measures of the integrity of white matter tracts in the brain obtained via neuroimaging. The correlations between three assessment techniques including MRI, eye tracking and psychometric testing will also be discussed.