2026 Annual Scientific Meeting Award Recipients

The Early Career Lecture Award recognizes the best paper on headache, head or facial pain, or pain mechanisms authored by an early career researcher. The recipient is also invited to present their work during the Annual Scientific Meeting on Friday. The 2026 award goes to María Dolores Villar Martínez, MD, of King’s College London in the United Kingdom, for her research, Visual, Vestibular, and Ocular Motor Changes During Nitroglycerin-Triggered Vestibular Migraine.

Named after one of the founding figures in headache research, the Harold G. Wolff Lecture Award honors the best new paper on headache or facial pain. The recipient also presents their findings on Friday during the Annual Scientific Meeting. This year’s award goes to Yaseen Agbaria, PhD of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the paper, Delta-Opioid Receptors in PAC1-Expressing Cells Regulate Endogenous and Pharmacological Responses to Migraine-Associated Symptoms.

The John R. Graham Lecture Award honors the Immediate Past President of AHS or another individual who has demonstrated exceptional international leadership in headache research and education. The 2026 recipient is Todd J. Schwedt, MD, MSCI, FAHS, of Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, for his lecture, "Evolving Expectations for Migraine Diagnosis and Treatment Outcomes." He will be presenting his findings on Saturday afternoon at the Annual Scientific Meeting.

The Seymour Solomon Lecture Award recognizes a leader who has made lasting contributions to clinical headache education. The recipient will deliver a lecture during the Annual Scientific Meeting on Saturday. This year’s award is presented to Wouter I. Schievink, MD of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California, for his presentation titled “Navigating the CSF leak seascape: 1991 – 2026.”

The Above and Beyond Award recognizes AHS members who have gone above and beyond in their service to the Society over the past 1-2 years. The 2026 recipients are:

• Amynah Pradhan, PhD, FAHS – Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
• Nina Riggins, MD, PhD, FAHS – Headache Center of Excellence, Palo Alto, California

The Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated long-term, meaningful service to both AHS and the field of headache medicine. This year’s honoree is Matthew S. Robbins, MD, FAHS, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

The Society’s highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual whose career has made a lasting impact on headache medicine. The 2026 recipient is Kathleen B. Digre, MD, FAHS, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

• Nicholas J. Bellacicco, DO - University of Connecticut/Hartford HealthCare, In Their Own Words: Characterization of Migraine-Related Stigma at a Tertiary Headache Center Using Focus Groups
• Evangelia Semizoglou, PhD - Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Multi-omic and spatial transcriptomic profiling of human trigeminal ganglia 
• Medha Tandon, MBBS - Mayo Clinic, Utilization of Optic Nerve Ultrasound (ONUS) in CSF Dynamic Headache Disorders

• Marc Daou, MD - Baylor College of Medicine, Screening for Dysautonomia and Possible POTS in Pediatric Migraine: Development and Validation of a Headache-Specific
• Paige M. Estave, MD, PhD - Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Patient-Reported Benefits of Group-Based Online Mindfulness for Migraine: A Qualitative Study
• Leah K. Flatman, PhD - CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, University of Montreal, Safety of anti-CGRP monoclonal antibodies among pregnant women with migraine
• Akhilesh Kotiyal, PhD - Washington University in St. Louis, Defining the Role of Complement System in Chronic Migraine
• Keshet Pardo, MD - Mayo Clinic, Patterns of self-reported triggers within females and males with migraine and their association with prodromal and other migraine attack symptoms
• Aimen Vanood, MD - Mayo Clinic, Characterizing Autonomic Symptoms in Patients with Migraine with and without Aura
• Ailing Eileen Yang, MD - The University of South Florida, The Epidemiology of New Daily Persistent Headache at a Tertiary Headache Center: A Retrospective Analysis

• Yassine Filali, BSE - University of Iowa
• David M. Hendrix - Wake Forest University
• Sharii Liang - UCLA
• Kensei I. Maeda, MA - Yeshiva University
• Leah Owen-Oliner, MD - Sidney Kimmel Medical Center

The Basic Science Award recognizes the top basic science article published in Headache® during the previous year. The 2026 award goes to Alberto Ouro, PhD, of the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS) in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, for the study, Serum Levels of Autotaxin Reveal Its Role as a Novel Biomarker of Migraine. Dr. Ouro will present his findings at the 68th Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando on Friday, June 5, 2026, at 2:05-2:30 p.m.

Selected by AHS members, the Member’s Choice Award highlights a notable Headache® article published during the previous year. The winning article was Migraine in the workplace: Work productivity impact in a large US-based healthcare system using a cross-sectional employee survey by Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD, Allison Verhaak, PhD, Meghan Fajardo, PharmD, and Brian Grosberg, MD.