David A. Carpenter, MD, and Robert C. Bucelli, MD, PhD, will join the select group of physicians who have received the Dr. Neville Grant Award for Clinical Excellence. The award is administered by the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Medical Staff Association in honor of the late Dr. Neville Grant, who passed away in 2009.
The Neville Grant Award, one of the hospital’s highest honors, is presented annually to a member of the attending medical staff who serves as a role model for other caregivers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Criteria for the award include widespread recognition by others for the delivery of superb clinical care, exceptional compassion for patients and their families, extraordinary respect toward colleagues and other caregivers, and mentorship of house officers and medical students. Previous WashU Medicine Neurology recipients of the award include Stuart Weiss, MD, John C. Morris, MD, and David B. Clifford, MD.
Carpenter, who is a professor of neurology in the Section of Adult Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, completed his training at WashU Medicine in 1991, then returned to join the faculty in 2005 after beginning his career at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. Since joining the WashU Medicine faculty, he has served as co-director of the Moyamoya Center from 2008, and until 2020, he also served as director of the Comprehensive Outpatient Stroke Clinic and Clinical Stroke Services. Carpenter specializes in stroke, moyamoya, vasculopathy, cerebral hemorrhage, amyloid angiopathy, small vessel disease, and other cerebrovascular diseases. In addition to numerous teaching awards, Carpenter was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society (Class of 2024) and was named the Department of Neurology’s 2024 Muhammad T. Al-Lozi Adult Neurology Clinician of the Year.
Bucelli also completed his training at WashU Medicine and joined the faculty in 2012, serving in key leadership positions with the neuromuscular fellowship program as well as a two-year term as vice chair of education in the Department of Neurology. Bucelli currently holds joint appointments as Professor of Neurology and of Pathology and Immunology and serves as assistant director of the WashU Medicine Neuromuscular Clinical Lab and co-director of the ALS Center. As part of the ALS Center, Bucelli played a pivotal role in securing FDA approval of a new drug call tofersen that halts disease progression in some ALS patients; the drug has also led to improvements in a substantial proportion of patients, many of whom are now being treated outside of the clinical trial setting. Bucelli serves as a scientific advisor for the Mitchell and Friends Foundation and is a part of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network team at WashU Medicine. His previous departmental accolades include the Sven Eliasson Award for Teaching Excellence by an adult neurology attending (which he has won eight times) and the Muhammad T. Al-Lozi Adult Neurology Clinician of the Year Award in 2025.
Carpenter and Bucelli will receive their awards at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Medical Staff Association Semi-Annual General Staff meeting on April 16, 2026.