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2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Beau Ances

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Dr. Beau Ances is a member of the graduating class of 1989.  He distinguished himself throughout high school as a student and as an athlete. Beau was the valedictorian, captain of the varsity track team, editor of the yearbook, a National Honor Society officer and active in numerous co-curriculars.  His high school success was a precursor of what was to come in both the near and distant future.

Dr. Ances pursued his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania where he competed in track and field while earning his BA in Intenational Relations and Biology, graduating Summa Cum Laude.  An insatiable and inquisitive learner, Dr. Ances received his Masters from the London School of Economics (Health Planning and Finance) and his Ph. D from the University of Pennsylvania (Neuroscience). As Dr. Ances considered his career options, he felt he could make a significant contribution by becoming a physician.  He earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and did a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuroimaging of Neuroimmunology at the University of California, San Diego.  

In 2007, Beau accepted an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Washington University St. Louis.  He moved swiftly through the ranks of Assistant and Associate Professor.  He has received over twenty prestigious awards that recognize the exceptional quality of his scholarship, culminating with his appointment in the endowed chair as the Daniel J. Brennan MD Professor of Neurology (primary), Radiology, Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in Saint Louis (WUSTL).

Currently, Dr. Ances oversees the Ances laboratory at WUSTL  His neuroscience lab is focused on developing structural and functional neuroimaging biomarkers of normal aging and neurodegeneration (including Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND), and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD), as well as developing therapeutic interventions to improve neurocognitive deficits associated with them. His lab supports post-doctoral research associates, residents, medical students, graduate students, and undergraduates in their research and educational development.

His contributions to this field are extraordinary.  Over the past twenty years, he has been a guest lecturer or invited professor on more than 125 occasions.  He has been the primary or co-investigator on over thirty government funded studies.  He has published over 160 journal articles and served as an editor or peer reviewer for some of the most prestigious professional journals in his field including Lancet, Neurology, Journal of Neurovirology, New England Journal of Medicine and Human Brain Mapping to name just a few.

When asked about Dr. Ances work, his colleagues offered several compelling thoughts about the nature of his leadership which reflects as well upon his character:  
“He leads by example.  He never expects anything from anyone that he does not do or hasn’t already done.  He is willing to give you whatever you need to get your job done, whether you’re a post doc, coordinator, undergrad, whatever, and is always good about showing his gratitude... In the lab he really does let us be part of the team.  He accepts criticism as a way of improving himself and his work, not as a questioning of his authority.”  

“Most importantly, he is fair and always willing to give people credit where credit is due.  He is happy to give away first authorship on a journal article or abstract, and I find that is definitely not the norm in the university (or at least med school) culture.  Many researchers will keep first authorship… Beau could care less.  He published  however many papers, wrote however many grants and impressed however many people he needed to in order to achieve tenure and an endowed professorship, so now he just feels like he should help someone else in their career to do the same instead of taking over something that he doesn’t really need…he is very humble in that way.”

Dr. Ances is deeply involved in a variety of service-related organizations that connect to his professional work including the CJD Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association. One of his colleagues shared this insight,  “Beau does a lot of pro bono work for the CJD Foundation….squeezing patients from across the country into his clinic within a week when his normal wait list is at least 3-4 months, finding ways to see  patients without insurance, giving lectures and participating in family support activities for those touched by the disease.  He will even give them his cell number and talk to them late on a Sunday night when there’s something particularly pressing…these folks are very special to him and "office hours” mean nothing when they are in distress.” 

Elizabeth Westerhaus, Director of the Ances Lab stated, “I think one of his greatest contributions to the Alzheimer’s world (and world of CJD, HIV-associated cognitive disorders) is the way he sees patients.  He takes all the time in the world with them in clinic, like there is nothing else more important than the person in front of him.  He is kind and compassionate, silly when he needs to be, and even sheds a few tears with them sometimes when things are really bad.  He will tell you that he is able to do nothing for any of his patients because there is no cure for the diseases that he sees most frequently and no meds he can really give to stave off the effects, but just his gentle presence with them is a treatment/healing in itself.” 
 
Ms. Westerhaus described Dr. Ances as “a lovely human being”.  When pressed to offer a further explanation she said, “He is humble and grounded and kind…with his staff, with his patients, with his family, with everyone.  He doesn’t have a pretentious bone in his body and his family is always, always, always his first priority.  There are lots of docs that I have seen over the years that work late, come in early, travel extensively etc. and whose career and work is their priority, sometimes to the detriment of their family.  Beau, however, is always home for dinner at night and around to tuck his kids in bed (as evidenced by his texts & emails stopping around 6:30 every evening and not starting up again until around 10 PM).  He takes his kids to school every morning, leaves work in the middle of the day to go coach soccer, reads to the kids in class, comes in for career day and answers a bunch of questions from kindergarteners.”   

Dr. Beau Ances is an extraordinary scholar, physician, researcher and family man.  The Haddonfield Alumni Society is pleased to present Dr. Ances with our Lifetime Achievement Award Medal.