Esther Nie was awarded the prestigious Eva Kavan Prize for Excellence in Research on the Brain on June 14, 2016
The Eva Mary Kavan Prize for Excellence in Research on the Brain was established in 1999 by a generous endowment from Dr. Eva Kavan.  Dr. Kavan earned her doctorate degree in medicine at Charles University in her native Prague, Czechoslovakia.  She came to UCLA in 1956 at a time when there were only five hospitals performing open-heart surgery with a heart-lung machine; UCLA had one of the first teams to do open-heart surgery in the West. Dr. Kavan was a pioneer in the administration of anesthesia, utilizing the electroencephalogram to perform important research on the effects of the heart-lung machine on brain function during open-heart operations.  Dr. Kavan created this award to encourage a talented young scholar to pursue scientific research on the brain.