Carmen Sandi receives the Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award
© 2025 EPFL
EPFL neuroscientist Carmen Sandi has been awarded the 2025 Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Neuroscience.
The Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award is given by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in honor of neuroscientist Miriam (Mika) Salpeter who developed electron microscopic autoradiography to study the neuromuscular junction.
The Award “recognizes a neuroscientist with outstanding achievements in research who has significantly promoted the professional advancement of women in neuroscience.”
The 2025 recipient of the Mika Salpeter Lifetime Award is Professor Carmen Sandi.
Sandi is a professor at EPFL’s Brain Mind Institute within the School of Life Sciences, where she directs the Laboratory of Behavioural Genetics. Her research has profoundly advanced our understanding of how stress and anxiety impact brain function and behavior.
Sandi's work combines approaches from pharmacology, neurochemistry, genetics, behavioral economics, and neuroimaging to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and emotion. Recent studies from her lab have focused on the mesolimbic system, mitochondrial function in motivation, and the long-term effects of early life adversity on mental health. Her goal is to translate fundamental discoveries into therapeutic strategies for psychiatric disorders linked to stress and social dysfunction.
In 2018, Sandi founded the ALBA network to broaden inclusion in neuroscience and she regularly mentors early career women in neuroscience worldwide. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades over her distinguished career, including the Agora Prize, the Scott Award, the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award, the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award, and an honorary doctorate from University College Cork.
The SnF cites Professor Sandi for “…her tireless energy, immense warmth, and determination to make neuroscience a more equitable place.”