McLean-based faculty mentor Diego Pizzagalli received the prestigious Joel Elkes award at ACNP 2017 in Palm Springs, CA, for outstanding clinical research Diego Pizzagali given the ACNP Joel Elkes Research Award The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) has named Diego A. Pizzagali, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, Director of the McLean Imaging Center, and a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School as one of the winners of the 2017 Joel Elkes Research Award. The aim of Dr. Pizzagalli’s research is to advance our understanding of psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors implicated in depression, and use this information to identify novel targets for prevention and treatment. His work has demonstrated that depression and anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) arise from stressinduced dysfunction of specific brain pathways implicated in reward-related learning and motivation. This award, presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the ACNP in Palm Springs, California is in recognition of his outstanding clinical contributions to neuropsychopharmacology. Dr. Pizzagalli is an outstanding translational neuroscientist who has significantly advanced our understanding of stress and anxiety-related disorders. In addition to his own accomplishments in research and as a national leader in psychiatry, he is the founding director of the Center fof Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research and director of the McLean Hospital Imaging Center. Dr. Pizzagalli also has trained a generation of clinical and translational researchers, many of whom are now ACNP members and leading clinical researchers. A number of his former mentees now hold academic positions in leading academic research institutions across the country, and have themselves become key leaders in the field of clinical neuroscience. His outstanding mentorship has been recognized by the Anne M. Cataldo Excellence in Mentorship at McLean Hospital and the Stuart T. Hauser Mentorship Award in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pizzagalli has served on many national Advisory Bodies including the Institute of Medicine, NIH Foundation, the NIMH Council Workgroup, is on the editorial boards of 11 international journals, and has published over 170 articles and chapters. Media contact: Erin Colladay at ecolladay@acnp.org ### ACNP, founded in 1961, is a professional organization of more than 1000 leading scientists, including four Nobel Laureates. The mission of ACNP is to further research and education in neuropsychopharmacology and related fields in the following ways: promoting the interaction of a broad range of scientific disciplines of brain and behavior in order to advance the understanding of prevention and treatment of disease of the nervous system including psychiatric, neurological, behavioral and addictive disorders; encouraging scientists to enter research careers in fields related to these disorders and their treatment; and ensuring the dissemination of relevant scientific advances.