The ASPEN community celebrates excellence in clinical nutrition with a variety of annual awards that acknowledge leadership, mentorship, innovation, and impact in practice, research, education, and advocacy. These awards are given out at ASPEN’s annual conference. Find out how to be recognized or nominate a colleague who is making progress in the field.
Clinical Practice Excellence
Honors outstanding, discipline-specific contributions to nutrition support practice and excellence in patient care delivery.
Clinical Nutrition Team of Distinction Award
Recognizes excellence in interdisciplinary clinical nutrition practice in institutions or agencies that meet certain criteria and comply with ASPEN national standards, guidelines, and values.
Distinguished Nutrition Support Clinician: Advanced Clinical Practice Award
Recognizes an ASPEN member for his or her outstanding contributions in leadership, practice, and advancement of clinicians in the field of nutrition support. Individuals demonstrate excellence in patient care, education, and mentorship of colleagues and students.
Distinguished Nutrition Support Service Awards
Recognizes ASPEN members who have shown exceptional leadership and practice contributions that advance both the vision of the society and the broader field of nutrition support. Individual awards are given annually to a nurse, dietitian, pharmacist, physician, and clinician who works internationally.
Peggi Guenter Excellence in Clinical Practice Award and Lecture
Recognizes a clinician’s achievements and accolades that reflect their direct influence on advancing the clinical practice of nutrition support through education, publication, advocacy, and/or observational/quality improvement research, which may also include the nutrition care process.
Education and Mentorship
Recognizes excellence in teaching, mentorship, and development of current and future clinical nutrition professionals.
Bruce R. Bistrian Nutrition Mentorship Award and Lecture
Recognizes a clinician or scientist working in complex clinical nutrition who has made a significant contribution to the field and serves as a mentor to interprofessional colleagues.
Excellence in Nutrition Support Education Award
Recognizes a nutrition support educator’s excellence in the delivery of professional education within the field.
George Blackburn Research Mentorship Award
Recognizes nutrition leaders for their achievements as outstanding research mentors. Awarded by the ASPEN Rhoads Research Foundation.
Emerging Clinicians
Supports and recognizes early-career professionals and trainees demonstrating promise and early leadership in clinical nutrition.
New Practitioner Awards
Recognizes emerging professionals who have contributed to the advancement of clinical nutrition.
Patricia Anthony Future Leaders Award
Recognizes a student, trainee, or new practitioner who has demonstrated leadership and dedication to excellence in nutrition support.
Global Programs and Travel Awards
Recognizes international engagement and supports global advancement of nutrition support education, practice, and collaboration.
Global PN Fellowship
Introduces early career physicians with an interest in nutrition support to ASPEN and allows them to understand how ASPEN can play an important role in their career development.
Travel Awards
Provides clinicians with educational opportunities to further their knowledge of nutrition support, enhance their skills, and network with colleagues and experts from around the world.
Lifetime and Leadership Impact
Recognizes sustained career achievement, visionary leadership, and long-term contributions to ASPEN and the field of clinical nutrition.
ASPEN Champion Award
Recognizes an ASPEN member for their significant and sustained contributions to the association. Selected by the ASPEN Board of Directors.
ASPEN Fellows
The Fellow of ASPEN (FASPEN) designation recognizes outstanding leaders in nutrition support who consistently contribute to education, clinical practice, research, and service to the field.
ASPEN Lifetime Achievement Award
ASPEN’s top honor recognizes a member whose career has sustained high-impact contributions to clinical practice, education, research, leadership, or advocacy over many years. Selected by the ASPEN Board of Directors.
Research and Innovation
Recognizes innovation, impactful research, scholarly achievement, and advancement of evidence-based clinical nutrition practice.
Harry M. Vars Award
Recognizes and honors an early career investigator who has submitted a top-scoring original abstract and demonstrates excellence via a written manuscript and oral presentation at the ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference during the Premier Paper Session and Vars Award Competition.
Jonathan E. Rhoads Lecturer Award
The highest and most prestigious of ASPEN’s annual research honors. The awardee is recognized internationally for major contributions to the field of nutrition and metabolic support, and who has demonstrated a career-long commitment to the improvement of the nutritional status of the patient.
Research Abstract Awards
Recognizes investigators who have submitted top-scoring original abstracts to the ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference.
Research Trainee Awards
Recognizes investigators still in training (i.e. students or those in residency, internship, or training programs) who have submitted top-scoring original abstracts to the ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference.
Stanley J. Dudrick Research Scholar Award
Honors a mid-career investigator with significant accomplishments in nutrition support research. The winner plans the prestigious Dudrick Research Symposium, held annually during the ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference.
Stanley Serlick Award
Awards a pharmacist who has made significant contributions to improving safe practices for parenteral nutrition through published literature, membership on national committees or task forces and/or presentations at regional and national meetings.
Service and Advocacy
Honors contributions that advance patient advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and service to the clinical nutrition community.
Barney Sellers Public Policy and Advocacy Award
Recognizes an ASPEN member who significantly advances ASPEN’s advocacy objectives.
Lyn Howard Nutrition Support Consumer Advocacy Award
Recognizes a patient (EN or PN consumer), or a family member or caregiver of such a patient, who has demonstrated admirable activities that advocate for themselves or others receiving EN or PN.