Charles L. Branch BrainHealth Award
Each year, one pioneering neuroscientist receives BrainHealth's highest science honor – the Branch Award – to recognize a lifetime of innovative brain research.
The award’s namesake, Dr. Charles L. Branch, was a leading scholar, neurosurgeon and humanitarian. Dr. Branch grew up in West Tennessee and graduated from Vanderbilt University Medical School in 1953. After a rotating internship at the University of Chicago, he completed his neurosurgical residency at the Montreal Neurological Institute under the guidance of Dr. Wilder Penfield (1891- 1976) and Dr. Theodore Rassmussen (1959-1968). In 1968 he moved to San Antonio to join the faculty of UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and entered private practice. After retiring in 1994, he dedicated an extraordinary amount of time, energy and support to notable medical missions in Haiti, Guyana and Nigeria. He died in 2013, with his family surrounding him at his home in San Antonio.
The award was created in 2010 to honor Dr. Branch for his lifetime of achievements as a distinguished neurosurgeon, prolific scholar and generous humanitarian and his overwhelming contributions to brain research.
Glass artist David Gappa created this glass neuron installation titled “Introspection” to mimic the mind for the Brain Performance Institute at the Center for BrainHealth in Dallas.
David Gappa of Vetro Art Glass designed the Branch Award bowl. Each unique blown glass sculpture features a white, star-shaped object in the center, which is an artistic representation of a neuron.
