AASM Award Nominations

The AASM Awards Advisory Panel will accept nominations for awards from Sept. 3 through Oct. 18, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Each year the AASM Awards Advisory Panel and AASM Foundation accepts nominations for prestigious awards which recognize outstanding contributions to the field of sleep medicine. Self-nominations will be accepted for the Sleep Champion Award only. The award information, nomination process, application requirements, and Awards Advisory Panel review process are outlined below. AASM award recipients will be recognized during the plenary session at SLEEP 2025 in June.

AASM Awards

In honor of Nathanial Kleitman 

The “Premier Sleep Medicine Award.” This award was created in 1981 and originally named after Nathanial Kleitman, who through his research on REM sleep, circadian rhythms, and the effect of drugs on sleep, helped to pioneer the field of sleep medicine and formed foundational elements relevant to the practice of sleep medicine today.  This foundation has been further strengthened over decades by numerous clinicians, psychologists, researchers, and scientists who have dedicated themselves through service to the AASM and a combination of multiple elements including:

  1. Research and scientific contribution
  2. Clinical achievement
  3. Education and mentoring
  4. Public Health Advocacy
  5. Community Service to the sleep community (AASM) and beyond.

Nominees and thus recipients of this award are those who strove throughout their careers to contribute to several of these foundational elements, including service to the AASM, and by doing so, helped to advance sleep medicine to where it is today through outstanding work and service to the field of sleep medicine.

In honor of William C. Dement 

The Excellence in Research Award recognizes members of the sleep field who have displayed exceptional initiative and progress in the areas of sleep academic research, dissemination of knowledge, and mentoring of the next generation of physicians and scientists. The award’s namesake, William C. Dement, MD, PhD, was one of the nation’s leading sleep researchers. His extensive publication of research and work with REM sleep has greatly advanced the sleep medicine field. The Excellence in Research Award embodies the pursuit of knowledge and an unceasing quest to disseminate truth in the areas of basic, translational, and clinical research.

Established in 2002, the AASM Award for Excellence in Education is presented to those individuals who have made outstanding contributions in sleep medicine education. The award serves to recognize and honor dedicated individuals who have skillfully enhanced the knowledge of professional and/or lay people in the area of sleep and sleep medicine or have made major contributions to the development of training programs or certification processes.

The Sleep Health Advocate Award, established in 1996, was originally given in honor of Senator Mark O. Hatfield.  The award acknowledges an individual who has demonstrated leadership in expanding knowledge of sleep health, enhancing public awareness, and promoting pro-sleep public policy.

The Clinical Achievement Award, established in 2024, honors a sleep clinician who has made transformative contributions to clinical sleep care.  Examples include those who pioneer novel approaches to clinical care, and those who develop innovative programs to enhance access to high-quality sleep health care and mitigate inequities in sleep health.

AASM Foundation Award

The Sleep Champion Award was created in 2019 to honor non-profit organizations that are leading such endeavors locally, nationally, or worldwide. The Sleep Champion Award celebrates successful community-based sleep health services and education provided by non-profit organizations.

AASM Awards Advisory Panel Process (What Happens Next)

The AASM Awards Advisory Panel meets to review the nominees and carefully consider all applications in relation to the special attributes of each award, as well as diversity of areas of interest, gender, geography, race, and practice type so that the award recipients reflect the richness and diversity of the field of sleep medicine. Upon completion of their deliberation, the AASM Awards Advisory Panel recommends the names of the final candidate(s) to the AASM Board of Directors.

What is the AASM Awards Advisory Panel?

The AASM Awards Advisory Panel was formed to assist the Board of Directors in creating a fair, equitable, and transparent process for selecting AASM award recipients.

For additional information please visit AASM Awards or email awards@aasm.org.