European Epilepsy Education Award 2022

Professor Alexis Arzimanoglou is a profoundly European child neurologist who devoted a large part of his commitment to the ILAE in developing educational activities. In 1994, under the auspices of the French chapter, he initiated together with Prs. Pierre Loiseau and Michel Baulac, the University Diploma of Clinical Epileptology, In 1999, together with Prs. Kahane, Hirsch and Ryvlin, he created the journal Epileptic Disorders, the first epilepsy journal to include video sequences for educational purposes. `and served it as Editor-in-Chief for 20 years. Since 2013 the journal became the educational journal of the ILAE. In partnership with the John Libbey Eurotext publishers and ANT CONGRES, Alexis organized more than 10 expert workshops on different topics of clinical epileptology that provided the material for the edition of a number of educational books, published in the series Progress in Epileptic Disorders. He chaired the scientific committee of the European Paediatric Neurology Society (2006-2009) and still serves as Associate Editor of its journal (EJPN; Elsevier).

At the request of his mentor, Pr. Jean AICARDI, he co-authored and edited two internationally recognized major textbooks: “Aicardi’s Epilepsy in Children” and “Aicardi’s Diseases of the Nervous System in Childhood”. Together with Prs. Cross and Duchowny he edited another educational textbook (Pediatric Epilepsy, McGraw Hill, 2012) for residents in Child Neurology and, in 2012, together with Prs. Cross, Gaillard, Holthausen, Jayakar, Kahane and Mathern, a book on Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery (JLE editions), reflecting many years of work of the corresponding ILAE task force.

As the Head of the Epilepsy unit at the Robert Debré Hospital in Paris and, since 2008, as Director of the Paediatric Clinical Epileptology, sleep disorders and functional neurology Dpt. at the University Hospitals of Lyon he has mentored clinicians from many countries. His teaching in Latin American countries led to his recognition as an Honorary member of the Academia Iberoamericana de Neurología Pediátrica.

Since 2017 he runs a 3-years cycle training course (EPIPED) on Treatment Strategies in Pediatric Epilepsies held in Girona and launched, together with the Hospital San Juan de Dios team, the first in Spanish language Master in Clinical Epileptology (Universitat de Barcelona).

Since 2019 he is the Coordinator of the European Reference Network for Rare and Complex Epilepsies (ERN EpiCARE) and leads its working group on Education and Training.

Alexis contributed to nearly 200 peer reviewed publications. He served as a member of the Commission for European affairs (2009-2013; 2022-…), the ILAE Pediatrics and Epilepsy Surgery task forces and is a member of the Education and Publications Councils. He received the ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy Award and the EPNS Aicardi Award for excellence in Paediatric Neurology.