Honorary Award of the German-speaking Society of Child Neurology for the Year 2016—Gesellschaft für Neuropädiatrie—for Ingeborg Sophie Krägeloh-Mann

Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann (Center) receiving the award from Prof. Florian Heinen (Left) and Prof. Ulrike Schara (Right).

The year 2016 prize of the German-speaking Society of Child Neurology is awarded to Prof. Dr. med. Ingeborg Sophie Krägeloh-Mann, Director of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

With this award, the Society wants to honor Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann, a distinguished clinician scientist who devoted all her professional life to children and their families, children with complex, and chronic neurologic disorders.

Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann was born near Stuttgart and studied medicine in Tübingen and in Lausanne at Lake Geneva. Because she became so fond of France, the French language, and culture, and because French Neurology was especially driving European Neurosciences, she spent early years of her medical education as “assitante étrangère des hopitaux de Paris” one of the many and lasting points of contact with France.

She began her scientific training with Prof. Dr. Richard Michaelis, then the leading developmental neurologist in Germany. With a competitively funded project, she started on the epidemiological compilation of cerebral palsy comparing Germany and Sweden. A habilitation grant from the DFG (German Research Association) allowed her to extend her scientific spectrum beyond epidemiological research toward imaging techniques and basic biological science.

During her cooperation with Richard Michaelis, she developed into one of the leading associates. In 1994, she habilitated with a topic that embraces one of her lifelong interests: “Lesions of the Immature Brain—Nosology, Epidemiology and Etiology of Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy” (“Läsionen des unreifen Gehirns—eine Untersuchung zu Nosologie, Epidemiologie und Ätiologie der spastischen Cerebralparese”).

In 1995, she was appointed as full Professor at the Technical University Munich (Pediatric Neurology), and in 1997, she returned to the Eberhard Karl's University Tübingen, appointed as Medical Director succeeding Richard Michaelis.

While the scientific oeuvre of Inge Krägeloh-Mann is wide ranging, her particular focus is on two distinct subject areas: these are cerebral palsies on the one hand and neurometabolic disorders on the other. Considering cerebral palsy, because of her special interest in preterm infants and in examination techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), together with her clinical interest in motor development, comprehensive developmental pediatrics, speech, and visual perception, she played and continues to play a prominent part in the concerted effort of the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) project.

In the field of neurometabolic disorders, lipid storage disorders are especially dear to Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann. Here she is involved in the pioneering work on stem cell therapy and translational research.

Part of many high-ranking scientific networks—at the national level in Germany as well as international networks in Europe and worldwide—Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann manages with a great deal of enthusiasm for her work and a good dose of joie de vivre, with charm, wisdom, and brilliance to sort out important from unimportant issues and establish stable, productive, and well-networking teams. In the course of all these activities, she has proven to be an excellent student, accepted and supported by stars like Jean Aicardi, while serving today herself as a respected teacher, consultant, mentor, and guide for many younger colleagues.

In her scientific fields of interest, Prof. Inge Krägeloh-Mann has been more than successful. Her name is on the big papers on cerebral palsy. In this field, she has more than 200 publications. With some 50 publications, neurometabolism takes the second most important place and a further more than 40 publications are proof of her broad medical competence and interests. In addition, she has written many standard book chapters as well as knowledgeable and impacting editorials.

Prof. Inge Sophie Krägeloh-Mann is a modern team player. Her life dedicated to her work with children, enriched by a broad cultural and musical interest, enjoying some sport activities in summer, she can be found with her husband kayaking on some rivers in France. We feel fortunate to count her as one of us and are indeed pleased and proud to honor her here today.