Cynthia Bearer honored with 2025 Avery Award for contributions to neonatal research

Renowned neonatologist Cynthia F. Bearer has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Mary Ellen Avery Neonatal Research Award by the American Pediatric Society and the Society for Pediatric Research. Bearer is professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and chief of the Division of Neonatology at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. 

Photo of Cynthia Bearer

When announcing the award, Clifford W. Bogue, president of the American Pediatric Society, cited the impact of Bearer’s research.

“She is a highly innovative pediatric investigator with a sustained record of excellence in neonatal and pediatric environmental health research,” he said. “Her scientific contributions have culminated in the emergence of pediatric and fetal environmental health as a distinct discipline in pediatric and neonatal care.”

Of her many original laboratory contributions, Bearer developed critical insights into the role of lipid structures in neurodevelopment and their vulnerability to lipophilic neurotoxicants. She has established fatty acid ethyl esters as a biomarker for both in utero exposure to ethanol, and ethanol impact on neurocognitive outcomes and holds a patent on this technology. Her research has received funding from National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  

“Cynthia’s groundbreaking research has tremendously increased our understanding of conditions and toxicity exposures in utero and in infants, resulting in improved treatments and approaches,” said School of Medicine Dean Stan Gerson. “These critical contributions to the field of neonatology demonstrate her dedication to caring for her patients and their families. This award is especially meaningful as Mary Ellen Avery was chief of pediatrics at Harvard Boston Children’s Hospital when I was a medical student.”  

Bearer has published extensively on fetal and pediatric environmental health and is editor-in-chief of the journal Pediatric Research, the official journal of the American Society of Pediatrics; the European Society for Paediatric Research and the Society for Pediatric Research. She has served on the Committee to Evaluate Children’s Health of the National Academy of Science and is a past president of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Study Group. Bearer is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.