2024 Bruce McEwen Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Dr. C. Sue Carter
Professor C. Sue Carter received her PhD in Zoology in 1969. Over her career she held professorships at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, as well as at the University of Maryland and Indiana University. In 1997 she was appointed to the rank of Distinguished University Professor at Maryland. In 2001 she became co-director of the Brain Body Center at the University of Illinois School of Medicine. From 2014-2019 she was the Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute, and a Rudy Professor of Biology at Indiana University. At present Dr. Carter is a Distinguished Research Scientist, and Director Emerita of the Kinsey Institute and holds academic appointments at the University of Virginia and the University of Florida. Dr. Carter’s research program discovered various mechanisms through which oxytocin and vasopressin help to explain the health and emotional benefits of social behaviors, especially in response to challenges and trauma. She brought wild-caught prairie voles into the laboratory, using these to explore the neurobiology of mammalian sociality and to document the value of this small mammal as a model for human behavior. Working with voles, she demonstrated the first evidence for a role for oxytocin and vasopressin in the formation of social bonds, documented a novel pattern of peptide receptors in a monogamous species and generated hundreds of studies of the neurobiology of social behavior. She also used the prairie vole model to conduct pioneering studies of developmental consequences of oxytocin and vasopressin. Her work in humans demonstrated the adaptive importance of lactation in stress-management. Research in her laboratory created the first successful methods for measuring oxytocin in saliva and validated the predictive value of peripheral measures of oxytocin in PTSD, autism, schizophrenia, postpartum depression, eating disorders, Williams Syndrome and wound healing. She continues to collaborate with many other scientists to explore the diverse effects of hormonal and behavioral experiences on oxytocin, vasopressin and their receptors and to describe the neurobiology of what she has called “sociostasis.” Bruce McEwen Lifetime Achievement Award 
The International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology (ISPNE) has awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards for over 20 years to a distinguished line of outstanding scientists in the field of psychoneuroendocrinology, for their contributions to our understanding of brain-body interactions. Note that the name for this award (formerly the Lifetime Achievement Award) was changed in 2020, when the award was renamed to honor PNE pioneer, Bruce E. McEwen. Bruce was awarded the lifetime achievement award in 2001. The 2024 Bruce McEwen Lifetime Achievement Award will be given by the Society during its Annual Meeting that will take place virtually on September 12th and 13th 2024. The awardee will present a lecture at the 2024 annual meeting, and the award will be presented in-person at the 2025 in-person annual meeting. All ISPNE members are invited to submit their nominations (name and a brief statement of support) via email with “Bruce McEwen Lifetime Achievement Award” as the subject line to ISPNE President Emma Adam at the following e-mail address: [email protected].
Previous Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
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Dr. C. Sue Carter has been awarded the 2024 Bruce McEwen Lifetime Achievement Award to acknowledge her achievements in psychoneuroendocrinology and honor her legacy of pivotal research for the past 50 years. Dr. Carter’s research has been integral to discovering the relationship between social behavior and oxytocin. Her work in humans and other mammals has helped define developmental and epigenetic consequences of oxytocin and the role of oxytocin pathways in selective sociality and the management of social isolation, stress, and trauma. Dr. Carter was the first person to detect and define the endocrinology of social bonds through her research on the socially monogamous, prairie vole. These findings have laid the foundation for ongoing studies of the behavioral and developmental effects of oxytocin and vasopressin and a deeper appreciation for the biological importance of relationships and sociostasis in human health and wellbeing.