Copenhagen was the venue of the third ICNA congress on May 24–29, 1982. The President of the Congress was Dr. Erik Hansen who had previously received the Board on the Island of Fyn where it visited the home of Hans Christian Andersen. The ICNA was honored by the presence of Queen Ingrid of Denmark who opened the congress. A reception in the Tivoli Gardens was a big attraction, as was a performance of the Royal Danish Ballet in an elegant 18th century theater in the round.
At this congress the ICNA awarded the first Frank R. Ford Memorial Lectureship to honor an ICNA member for exceptional contribution to child neurology, an honor which has been conferred at each succeeding ICNA congress. The first recipient was Dr. Sabine Pelc for her singlehanded efforts to start ICNA. Her topic was the childhood leukodystrophies.
The inaugural volume of the ‘International Review of Child Neurology Series’, founded and edited by Dr. Prichard, was about to appear. A gauge of the future success of the series is that one of two preliminary copies of the first volume rushed to the congress, bound in light blue rather than the familiar burnt orange, was purloined on the first day of the congress. Major topics of the congress were disturbances of cortical function, head injuries, neuropharmacology, disorders of carbohydrate metabolism and nutrition, and perinatal neurology – haemodynamic events.