Hanscarl Leuner Award for Scientific Excellence

The Hanscarl Leuner Award is given to a clinician or scientist honored for the most distinguished successful clinical or experimental research in the area of hallucinogenic/entactogenic drugs. This award is given every two years.

Dr. Hanscarl Leuner (1920-1996) was professor of psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen (Germany) and was the leading European expert on clinical LSD research and psycholytic therapy. His meticulous work laid the groundwork for the therapeutic application of drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. Together with English psychiatrist Ronald A. Sandison he introduced the use of psycholytic therapy into clinical practice. In 1965 he founded the European Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy (EPT) and acted as its president until 1975. He practiced psycholytic therapy from 1954 until his death in 1996.