Foundation

The Annemarie Opprecht - Foundation was established in 1998 and is sponsored by Annemarie Opprecht, a Swiss philanthropist.

The specific purpose of the Foundation is to promote, at an international level, medical or medical-related research in the field of Parkinson's disease.

Therefore, the Foundation presents at regular intervals the Annemarie Opprecht Parkinson Award, in amount of 100,000 Swiss francs.

The next, ninth, award presentation is scheduled for the year 2026.

Previous awards were given in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015 and 2018 and 2023.


Board of Trustees

Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Peter Gurtner, Switzerland
President of the Foundation


Prof. Dr. med. Mathias Sturzenegger, Switzerland
President of the Prize Committee


Theo Prinz, Business Economist FH, Switzerland


Dr. med. Claude Vaney, Switzerland


Prof. Dr. phil. Hans Rudolf Widmer, Switzerland


Auditor

OBT AG, Rorschach

Latest News

The next award presentation is scheduled for the year 2026.

2023 Award presentations: November 23rd, 2023, in Zürich/Switzerland during the Annual Joint Scientific Meeting of the Swiss Neurological, Neurosurgical and Behavioural Neurology Societies.

The Year 2023 is a special year for the Annemarie Opprecht Foundation because we can celebrate its 25th anniversary. 

For this reason, the Board of Trustees has decided to present as an unique gesture two Annemarie Opprecht Parkinson Awards, each in the amount of 100,000 Swiss francs for the two best rated submissions.

Award Winners 2023:

There were 18 applicants who all have submitted a scientific work of outstanding quality which made the decision to the prize committee extremely difficult.

The committee finally has elected:

Professor D. James Surmeier, Chair, Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA.

Award winning publication: Disruption of mitochondrial complex I induces progressive parkinsonism. NATURE 599: 650-656 (2021).

Prof. Michel Goedert and Dr. Sjors H. W. Scheres, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.

Award winning publication: Structures of a-synuclein filaments from human brains with Lewy pathology. NATURE 610, 791-795 (2022).

2023 Award presentations: November 23rd, 2023, in Zürich/Switzerland during the Annual Joint Scientific Meeting of the Swiss Neurological, Neurosurgical and Behavioural Neurology Societies.


Deadlines

Submission for the next award: to be defined


Award Winners

2023 Awards
Prof. D. James Surmeier,
Prof. Michel Goedert and Dr. Sjors H.W. Scheres

2018 Award
Prof. Paul Krack

2015 Award
Prof. Heiko Braak

2012 Award
Prof. Lorenz Studer

2008 Award
Prof. John Hardy
Prof. Andrew B. Singleton

2005 Award
Prof. Stanley Fahn
Prof. Zbigniew K.Wszolek

2002 Award
Prof. José A. Obeso

1999 Award
Prof. Anthony H.V. Schapira
Prof. Pierre Pollak