2026/27 ISSLS Slate Announcement
We are pleased to confirm the 2026/27 Slate as follows:
Second Vice President: Ashish Diwan
Treasurer: Fabio Zaina
Fellowship Committee: Paul Licina
Program Committee: Arnold Wong
Membership Committee: Zorica Buser
Scientific Representative: Stefan Dudli
Regional Representative, Eastern US: Ram Haddas
Congratulations!
We thank those who are vacating their positions for their wonderful contributions to ISSLS and look forward to welcoming the new Slate.
ISSLS Announces 2026 ISSLS Prize Winners
The International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) is pleased to announce the 2026 ISSLS Prize recipients, selected by the ISSLS Prize Committee under the leadership of Professor Helena Brisby (Chair) from a strong field of submissions across Basic, Clinical, and Bioengineering Science.
Join us in congratulating the 2026 ISSLS Prize winners:
Basic Science
Early Markers of Mechanical Intervertebral Disc Degeneration of Whole Bovine Discs Loaded in a Multiaxial Bioreactor
Barbora Kubincova (1,2), Marcia Muerner (1,3), Junxuan Ma (1), Jeannine Mueller (1,3), Amra Šećerović (1), Mazda Farshad (2,4), Sibylle Grad (1,3)
Clinical Science
Data-driven classification of lumbar spine degeneration trajectories in chronic low back pain
Terence P. McSweeney [1], Zehra Akkaya [2], Jiamin Zhou [3], Po-Hung Wu [3,5], Noah B. Bonnheim [4], Thomas M. Link [5], Jaro Karppinen [1,6], Jeffrey C. Lotz [3], Simo Saarakkala [1,7], Aaron J. Fields [3], Aleksei Tiulpin [1,8]
Bioengineering Science
Hidden in Plain Sight: Machine Learning–Assisted MRI Reveals Novel Vertebral Body Biomarkers of Chronic Low Back Pain in Humans
Jeffrey CY Ng [1], Nathan Armani [2], Xijun Sun [1], Sabina M Pinto [1,3], Dino Samartzis [4], Arnold YL Wong [1,5]
The prize-winning research will be presented at the ISSLS 2026 Annual Meeting - don’t miss the opportunity to hear directly from the authors.
ISSLS congratulates all award recipients, thanks all applicants for their high-quality submissions, and expresses its gratitude to the European Spine Journal for sponsoring the 2026 ISSLS Prize.
2026 ISSLS Research Grant Award Winners
Congratulations to Takuhei Kozaki and Sonja Haeckel who have won, respectively, the Clinical Science Research Grant (sponsored by Medtronic) and the Basic Science Research Grant (sponsored by Cerapedics). The awards were announced at the ISSLS Fellowship Awards Ceremony, during the annual conference in Cape Town, South Africa May 11-15, 2026.
Learn more about the Basic Science Research Grant here.
Learn more about the Clinical Science Research Grant here.
2026 ISSLS Clinical Travelling Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr Yiqi Zhang, winner of the 2026 ISSLS Clinical Travelling Fellowship.
Dr Zhang will visit Professor. Dino Samartzis and Dr. Nathan J. Lee at Rush University Medical Center, USA to undertake his Fellowship.
Learn more about the Clinical Travelling Fellowship here.
Professor Stuart McGill is Honoured with 2026 Wiltse Lifetime Achievement Award
We are delighted to announce that Professor Stuart McGill, has been named recipient of the esteemed 2026 ISSLS Wiltse Lifetime Achievement Award.
This prestigious honour was presented during the ISSLS Fellowship Awards Ceremony, held as part of the annual conference in Cape Town, South Africa, May 11–15, 2026.
Learn more about their remarkable contributions to spine research and clinical practice by reading his biography in the European Spine Journal.
Click here for more information.
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