BIDDEFORD — Dr. Ed Bilsky, vice president for Research and Scholarship, founding director of the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences and professor of pharmacology at the University of New England, has been selected as a member of the prestigious Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, or DABI. He is the first neuroscientist from Maine to receive this honor.

The Dana Alliance is a nonprofit organization supported entirely by the Dana Foundation. Its mission is to advance public education about the progress and benefits of brain research and to disseminate information on the brain in an understandable and accessible fashion.

As a DABI member, Bilsky will join a distinguished group of neuroscientists who are called upon by the organization to organize and serve as experts at public forums, to write and review articles for Dana publications, to provide information to journalists and to advocate for brain research through community outreach programs, such as the yearly Brain Awareness Week Campaign, the organization’s flagship event.

“I am excited and honored to be selected to join the Dana Alliance as a member,” said Bilsky. “Being the first member from Maine to join the Alliance, I hope to use this new connection to promote brain awareness to the citizens of Maine in concert with the Maine Society for Neuroscience.”

The current director of CEN, Dr. Ian Meng, professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, said of Bilsky’s appointment, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving.”

Bilsky was awarded the 2011 American Osteopathic Association Research Mentor of the Year Award, received the 2014 Patient Advocacy Award from the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the 2014 Career/Lifetime Achievement Award from the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.

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