Newswise — BETHESDA, MD – January 3, 2013 – The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce the selection of 10 early career researchers – five graduate students and five postdoctoral researchers – as recipients of a Spring 2013 DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics. The award is a $1,000 travel grant for each researcher to attend any national or international meeting, conference or laboratory course that will enhance his or her career.
“Each round, the review committee has a tough job selecting the most deserving applicants from among the many strong applications,” said Adam Fagen, PhD, Executive Director. “These 10 recipients represent just a small sample of the excellence found among grad students and postdocs in our community, ensuring a strong future for the field of genetics.”
The DeLill Nasser Award was established by GSA in 2001 to honor its namesake, DeLill Nasser (1929-2000), a long-time GSA member who provided critical support to many early career researchers during her 22 years as program director in eukaryotic genetics at the National Science Foundation. Since the formation of this award, nearly 100 graduate students and postdocs have received funding for travel to further their career goals and enhance their education. The program is supported by GSA, and with charitable donations from members of the genetics community.
The 10 recipients of the spring 2013 DeLill Nasser Awards, their institutions and the conference or lab course each intends to attend are listed below.
Graduate Students
Daniel K. Bricker, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 3–7, 2013, Washington, DC
Russ Corbett-Detig, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 3–7, 2013, Washington, DC
Maria N. Hindt, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NHInternational Conference on Arabidopsis, June 24–28, 2013, Sydney, Australia
Kathy Ngo, University of California, Los Angeles2013 Gordon Research Conference on Developmental Biology, June 30–July 5, 2013, Lucca, Italy
Mengshu Xu, University of Toronto, CanadaEMBO Conference Series: Chromatin and Epigenetics, May 8–12, 2013, Heidelberg, Germany
Postdoctoral Researchers
Wen Huang, PhD, North Carolina State University, Raleigh54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 3–7, 2013, Washington, DC
Alysia Mortimer, PhD, Emory University, Atlanta, GA54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 3–7, 2013, Washington, DC
Olga S. Novikova, PhD, University at Albany, NY27th Fungal Genetics Conference, March 12–17, 2013, Pacific Grove, CA
Jason Slot, PhD, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN27th Fungal Genetics Conference, March 12–17, 2013, Pacific Grove, CA
Robert Unckless, PhD, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 3–7, 2013, Washington, DC
Members of the DeLill Nasser Award Selection Committee reviewed the applications for this cycle. They included: Chair Sue Wessler, PhD (University of California, Riverside), and members Tim Christensen, PhD (East Carolina University, Greenville, NC); Marnie Halpern, PhD (Carnegie Institute for Science); R. Scott Hawley, PhD (Stowers Institute for Medical Research); Kristin Latham, PhD (Western Oregon University); Terry Orr-Weaver, PhD (Whitehead Institute and MIT); Helen K. Salz, PhD (Case Western Reserve University); and Jeffrey Williams Thomas, PhD, nephew of DeLill Nasser.
Up to 25 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers receive DeLill Nasser Awards annually to assist them in acquiring career enrichment. For more information about these awards, visit the GSA website at http://www.genetics-gsa.org/awards/delill.shtml.
ABOUT GSA: Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers, educators, bioengineers, bioinformaticians and others interested in the field of genetics. Its nearly 5,000 members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level. The GSA is dedicated to promoting research in genetics and to facilitating communication among geneticists worldwide through its conferences, including the biennial conference on Model Organisms to Human Biology, an interdisciplinary meeting on current and cutting edge topics in genetics research, as well as annual and biennial meetings that focus on the genetics of particular organisms, including C. elegans, Drosophila, fungi, mice, yeast, and zebrafish. GSA publishes GENETICS, a leading journal in the field and an online, open-access journal, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. For more information about GSA, please visit www.genetics-gsa.org. Also follow GSA on Facebook at facebook.com/GeneticsGSA and on Twitter @GeneticsGSA.
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