A prize of £250 is awarded each year for the published research paper by a UK based author most likely to result in improved treatment or public awareness of tinnitus. The Marie & Jack Shapiro Prize is intended to encourage researchers, public communicators and others to develop an interest in tinnitus and to recognise their efforts.

This prestigious award is presented each year at the BTA Annual Conference. Material is considered each summer by our Professional Advisers Committee which then advises the BTA Council of Management.

There is encouraging evidence that tinnitus related research appears to be undergoing a resurgence in the UK, although we still have some way to go to match other countries efforts; in a recent international tinnitus research anthology out of a total of 47 papers only one had a UK-based author.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Please note: We do not accept nominations for the award. Papers are shortlisted following a literature search of published material in the relevant calendar year and we use this as the basis for nominations.

Previous winners:

2011

Dr L St Claire for her paper 'Caffeine abstinence: An ineffective and potentially distressing tinnitus therapy'

2010

Dr P Adjamian, Prof D Hall, Dr M Sereda for their paper ‘The mechanisms of tinnitus: Perspectives from human functional neuroimaging'

2009

The Association decided to award two prizes in 2009 to:

Mr M Trotter and Mr I Donaldson for their paper on 'Hearing aids and tinnitus therapy: a 25 year experience'

Dr G Madani and Dr S E J Conner for their paper on 'Imaging in pulsatile tinnitus'.

2008

The 2008 Marie & Jack Shapiro Prize was presented jointly to David Baguley and Don McFerran for their combined research paper analysing the links between tinnitus and depression, which contains findings that could see significant progress being made in the development of techniques designed to relieve tinnitus.

2007

After careful consideration the Association decided to award two prizes in 2007.

L Handscomb, for her paper 'Use of bedside sound generators by patients with tinnitus-related sleeping difficulty: which sounds are preferred and why?'

M Sadlier, S D G Stephens, V Kennedy for their paper 'Tinnitus rehabilitation: a mindfulness meditation cognitive behavioural therapy approach'

2006

The Marie and Jack Shapiro prize was not awarded in 2006.

2005

David Baguley, a Consultant Clinical Scientist and head of Addenbrookes Hospital's Audiology Department was awarded the first Marie and Jack Shapiro Research Award in 2005. Dr. Baguley's research examined the effect of the drug lidocaine (also known as lignocaine) on tinnitus.