Funder: National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Due Dates (Anticipated): October 2027 (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: $40,000 discretionary prize, sculpture, and AAN Annual Meeting registration and travel benefits
Summary: Recognizes outstanding research breakthroughs advancing the understanding, prevention, treatment, or cure of multiple sclerosis.
Key Information: Applicants must be active MS researchers; industry employees are ineligible.
Description
The John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research is awarded jointly by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). It recognizes significant research that has changed how multiple sclerosis is understood or treated. Innovative research with lasting impact is the primary selection criterion, with recent and ongoing active research a major consideration—not lifetime achievement.
Only accomplishments directly related to MS are considered. Advances in other inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system qualify only insofar as they advance understanding of MS. The prize is supported by the John Dystel Multiple Sclerosis Research Fund, established in 1994 by Oscar and Marion Dystel in honor of their son John Jay.
