[Won Chan Oh]

General application info

Deadline – October 17, 2025 (5 PM local time of the applicant)
Please submit your application only once. Revised and late submissions will not be considered.
Note: If an applicant was a previous awardee of any AKN award, please indicate the previous award and highlight it in yellow in your CV.
We will have a one-year transition period exception. If your current title is postdoc but still within one year from your transition, you are eligible to apply for predoctoral award. Likewise, research scientist and junior research scientist are eligible for their previous position award.

Disqualifications
1) Previous winners of the same category awards. (An application to other categories is welcomed.)
2) Applicants who are over-qualified by spending more than 7 years at the current position.
3) Non-presenting author of the SfN abstract (relevant only for Pre- and Post-doctoral trainee categories)
4) Any application that does not follow the instructions will not be reviewed. (e.g., missing the deadline, sending multiple PDF files, etc.)
5) An award recipient must be physically present at the award ceremony (if not, the awardee will be disqualified). This year’s AKN will be held on November 17th, 2025 at the Horton Grand Hotel in San Diego at 6:30 – 9:30pm

1. Pre- and Post-doctoral trainees
We will present AKN Outstanding Research Awards in four different categories for Pre- and Post-doctoral trainees: 1) Pre-doctoralin Korea 2) Pre-doctoral in US and abroad, 3) Postdoctoral in Korea, and 4) Postdoctoral in US and abroad. The number of awards may vary depending on the number of qualified applicants and the availability of funding.
Award recipients will be selected according to 1) the quality of their SfN abstract and 2) their research accomplishments during theircurrent career status. Note: For Postdoctoral fellows, their accomplishments during the graduate student period will not be considered.
Each award recipient will receive a $400 (pre-doctoral) or $500 (postdoctoral) prize along with an award certificate.
What to submit (Format: Only one PDF file for all submission materials)

• a full CV (including complete publication record)
• a copy of your first-author SfN abstract for poster/oral presentation and related information (e.g., presentation format (oral vs poster), presentation date & time, and abstract #)

  Application should be sent as an e-mail attachment (Only One PDF file) to:

• Dr. Yu Shin Kim (yushink@gmail.com) if you are from an institute located outside Korea, including the USA.
• KSBNS (neuro@ksbns.org) if you are from an institute located in Korea.

Please use “AKN Predoctoral student Award Application – Your name” or “AKN Postdoctoral fellow Award Application – Your name” in the email subject line.

2. Junior Research Scientists (Limited to applicants in the USA & Canada)

The following scientists are eligible.

– Scientists working at an academic institution who completed their postdoctoral training within the last 7 years. Examples: Currently at the rank of Instructor, non-tenure track Assistant Professor, Research Associate, or any equivalent position at an academic institution. *Postdoctoral fellow with more than 7 years of postdoc experience can also apply to this Junior Research Scientists category.

– Scientists working in Industry (within 14 years of experience after obtaining their Ph.D. Examples: 7 years of postdoc + 7 years in Industry, 5 years of postdoc + 9 years in Industry, etc.)

If there are any questions about the eligibility, please reach out to Dr. Yu Shin Kim (yushink@gmail.com).

Note: Their accomplishments during the graduate student and postdoctoral training period will not be considered. Only the research accomplishments during their current career status will be considered.

Each award recipient will receive a $700 prize along with an award certificate.

What to submit (Format: Only one PDF file for all submission materials)

• a full CV (including complete publication record)

SfN abstract is not required but can be submitted.

Application should be sent as an e-mail attachment (Only One PDF file) to Dr. Yu Shin Kim (yushink@gmail.com). 

Please use “AKN Junior Research Scientist Award Application – Your name” in the email subject line.

3. Junior faculty (Limited to applicants in the USA & Canada)
For this award category, we will pay special emphasis to the applicant’s academic and scientific accomplishments as an independent principal investigator (i.e., senior-author publication, R01 grant, etc.). Their accomplishments during the graduate student and postdoctoral training period will not be considered.

• Eligibility is limited to an Assistant Professor or an equivalent level at an academic institution with 2 – 7 years of experience at thecurrent position

  The winner will be invited to present his/her work at the meeting and awarded a $1,000 prize.

  What to submit (Format: Only one PDF file)

• a full CV (including complete publication and grant record)

  Application should be sent as an e-mail attachment (Only One PDF file) to Dr. Yu Shin Kim (yushink@gmail.com). 

  Please use “AKN Junior faculty Award Application – Your name” in the email subject line.

  AKN Website: Please visit our website at https://www.akneuro.org for further information and updated announcements.