Distinguished Members

At the Strategic Planning meeting in July 2006 the Australian Pain Society (APS) Board of Directors decided that the Distinguished Member Award should replace the Honorary Life Membership.
Further, at the Strategic Planning meeting in August 2009 the Board felt that the APS membership should also be asked if they have any nominations, which could be submitted to the membership committee.
At the face to face APS Board meeting in April 2019 it was agreed to apply more rigour to these guidelines to ensure future consistency. It was further agreed that generally, Distinguished Member nominations should not be made/accepted until a member is approaching retirement.

This award will be made available annually and presented to Australian Pain Society member/s who have satisfied the following:

Eligibility Criteria

Candidates must be Australian Pain Society member/s who generally have had a lengthy career in the field of pain and have:

• Made a major contribution¹ towards the Society, and
• Significantly contributed to the science of pain management, and/or
• Played a significant clinical, educational or research role in the field of Pain Management in Australia

¹ Major contributions include, but are not limited to:

• SPC involvement
• Pain research
• APS projects
• Subcommittee involvement
• Board liaison
• Contributions to ASM presentations

Nomination Guidelines

• A Nomination for Distinguished Member Award form must be completed
• As a guide, it is desirable that nominees have held continuous APS membership for over 10 years
• Nominations must include an 800-900 word biography of the nominee. The Board will not consider incomplete nomination forms.
• Unsuccessful nominations are not automatically put forward in subsequent years.
• The nominator must be prepared to present a brief summary of the Distinguished Member biography in the ASM program, or arrange a suitable alternate for the presentation segment.

Submission

• All nominations to be submitted to the APS Secretariat by 31 October each year.

Notification

• The APS Board will notify successful nominees, if any, by 31 December each year.
• Distinguished Member recipients are actively encouraged to attend the Annual Scientific Meeting in order to receive their award in person from the APS President.

The Australian Pain Society Distinguished Member Roll

Year	Recipients
2025	Ms Trudy Maunsell
2024	None awarded
2023	Dr Matthew Crawford AM
2022	Dr Michael Farrell
2021	Dr Will Howard
2020	A/Prof David Champion AM
2019	Dr Penny Briscoe AM
2018	Prof Michael Nicholas
2017	Dr Meredith Craigie Dr Tim Semple
2016	Prof Stephen Gibson Prof Philip Siddall
2015	Prof Maree Smith AC Ms Helen Rowe Mrs Denise Francis-King
2014	Dr Frank New Dr James O'Callaghan Dr Daryl Salmon Prof Jenny Strong
2013	Ms Amal Helou
2012	Dr Bruce Rounsefell
2011	None awarded
2010	Dr Roger Goucke AM
2009	Dr Carolyn Arnold Dr Leigh Atkinson Dr David Cherry Prof Arthur Duggan Dr David Gronow Dr George Mendelson Dr Connie Peck
2008	Prof Nikolai Bogduk Prof Michael Cousins AO Dr John Ditton
2007	Prof Tess Cramond AO OBE Dr Geoff Gourlay