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Awardee Announced
The International Paediatric Brain Injury Society is happy to announce Professor Dr. Karen Lidzba as 2026 Jane Gillett Award recipient.
Announcing 2026 Recipient of Jane Gillett Award
The International Paedatric Brain Injury Society is happy to announce the recipient of 2026 Jane Gillett Award, Professor Dr. Karen Lidzba.
Biography about Dr. Karen Lidzba
Professor Dr. Karen Lidzba, born in Germany in 1975 is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Bern’s Medical Faculty and serves as the leader of pediatric neuropsychology at the University Children’s Hospital Bern.
Dr. Lidzba earned her doctorate in Neuropsychology from the University of Tübingen in 2006, followed by the habilitation in Pediatric and Developmental Neuropsychology. Her career includes significant roles at the University Children’s Hospital Tübingen, where she contributed to both clinical and research initiatives from 2001 to 2016.
A committed researcher, Dr. Lidzba has led a range of projects funded, amongst others, by the German Research Foundation. Her work primarily focuses on understanding neuropsychological aspects of children with neurological conditions. She is actively involved in supervising graduate and postgraduate students, fostering the next generation of researchers and clinicians.
In addition to her academic commitments, Dr. Lidzba is a member of several scientific societies and has organized conferences and symposia on a variety of topics regarding children with neurological conditions.
Her work has earned her recognition, including the Margarete-von-Wrangell Fellowship for Women. Currently, her main focus lies on the clinical work in pediatric neuropsychology, including postgraduate teaching and continuing education in this field.
Location of Presentation: The Jane Gillett award will be presented on the occasion of the Sixth Conference of Paediatric Brain Injury in Calgary, Alberta, Canada April 29 – May 2, 2026.
Awards Presented at Previous IPBIS Conferences
The five previous recipients of the Jane Gillett Award are Dr Shari Wade, 2015 (USA); Dr. Ingrid van’t Hooft, 2017 (Sweden); Dr Mathilde Chevignard, 2019 (France); Dr Arend de Kloet, 2022 (Netherlands); and Dr Joanna Hamilton, 2024 (Canada).
About Dr. Jane Gillett
Dr. Jane Gillett was a paediatric and adult neurologist who was at the forefront of acquired brain injury treatment. She was the medical director of the Acquired Brain Injury Program at Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and an Associate Professor at McMaster University. Prior to this appointment, she was the Medical Director of the Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury Community Outreach Program (PABICOP) and a consultant paediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
Dr. Gillett was known as a caring physician who worked closely together with patients, families, teachers and other caregivers. She was a strong supporter of an inclusive team approach to rehabilitation and was renowned for her ability to bring people together. Dr. Gillett was one of the first to recognize that the impact of an acquired brain injury in young people may continue to emerge for many years post-injury, often arising or changing with developmental stages. She stressed that long-term rehabilitation and care of the child or youth with a brain injury must occur within his or her own community. She believed that care has to be comprehensive because brain injury affects so many different developing functions and the effects of the injury can vary throughout the lifespan. Embracing these beliefs, Dr. Gillett developed the Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury Community Outreach Program (PABICOP) in London Ontario, serving five counties throughout southwestern Ontario. PABICOP continues today as an international model for serving children and youth with acquired brain injury and their families.
Dr. Gillett was always willing to share her expertise with others, both within Canada as well as elsewhere. It was her dream to establish an international consortium of brain injury experts in various disciplines in order to spread awareness and enhance treatment of paediatric brain injury world-wide. She made that dream come true by founding the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society (IPBIS) at a meeting of like-minded professionals in Magnetewan, Ontario in 2009. Jane Gillett served as the first and only President of IPBIS until she died on February 16, 2011 in Brantford, Ontario at the age of 55 from a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
In order to honour and always remember this outstanding woman and to stimulate others to provide services using her philosophies, the Board of Governors of the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society created the Jane Gillett Award.