Beth Devermont, President and Director of The Sam and Ida Turken Charitable Foundation, is the daughter of Phyllis Turken Shamberg who began donating funds to Alzheimer’s research in the 1980’s. Almost 30 years ago, Phyllis Turken Shamberg reached out to Alzheimer’s Los Angeles regarding an interest in creating a partnership between Alzheimer’s Los Angeles, The Sam and Ida Turken Foundation, and UCLA to create a scholarship for early career Alzheimer’s researchers. The first award was provided in 1990 and has continued ever since. Mrs. Devermont continues her mother’s legacy by providing an annual gift to support an early career researcher at UCLA who is committed to studying Alzheimer’s disease.

Every year, UCLA’s Mary Easton Center hosts Turken Day, a daylong event where early career researchers share their impressive work in the study of Alzheimer’s disease and culminates with a presentation from the awardee.

1991 - Peter (Taihung) Duong, PhD
1992 – Joseph Watson, PhD
1993 – Susan McPherson, PhD
1994 – Todd Morgan, PhD
1995 – Susan Book Bookheimer, PhD
1996 – Marni E. Harris-White, PhD
1997 – Julia W. Chang, PhD
1998 – Chandra Reynolds, PhD
1999 – Tiffany Chow, MD (UCLA) & Barbara Cherry, PhD (USC)
2000 – Dan Silverman, MD, PhD (UCLA) & Christian Pike, PhD (USC)
2001 – Dan Geschwind, MD, PhD
2002 – George Jackson, MD, PhD
2003 – Paul Thompson, MD, PhD
2004 – John Ringman, MD
2005 – Gal Bitan, PhD
2006 – Linda Ercoli, PhD
2007 – Liana Apostolova, MD
2008 – Edmond Teng, MD, PhD
2009 – Martin Wirenfeldt Nielsen, MD, PhD
2010 – Po-Haong Lu, PsyD
2011 – Meredith Braskie, PhD
2012 – Joshua Grill, PhD
2013 – Sophie Sokolow, PhD, MPharm
2014 – Zhefeng Guo, PhD
2015 – Florence Roussotte, PhD
2016 – Lin Jiang, PhD
2017 – Eric Hayden, PhD
2018 – Paul Seidler, PhD
2019 – Jessica Rexach, MD, PhD
2020 – Mirella Díaz-Santos, PhD
2021 – Shino Magaki, MD, PhD
2022 – Eleanor Hayes-Larson, PhD, MPH
2023 – Kacie Deters, PhD
2024 – Chao Peng, PhD