SEATTLE — March 1, 2019 — Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has announced the 2019 recipients of the annual Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in graduate studies in the biological sciences.
Nominations for this prestigious award are solicited internationally. This year’s 13 awardees come from academic institutions around the United States, including Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, Indiana University, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco. The awardees study a range of biological questions including how cells divide, interactions between bacteria and the hosts they infect, and brain regulation of hunger and thirst.
In its 20th year, the Weintraub Award began in 2000 and is named for Dr. Harold Weintraub, who helped found the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutch and died of brain cancer in 1995 at age 49. The award honors Weintraub’s scientific leadership in the field of molecular biology and his legacy as an extraordinary mentor, colleague, collaborator and friend.
“Hal had an absolute passion for understanding how biology works, a passion that led him to major discoveries regarding how genes are turned on and off in specific cell types. Importantly, Hal’s discoveries have also led to new therapies for patients,” said Dr. Mark Groudine, a long-time friend and colleague of Weintraub and now a special adviser to the Director’s Office at Fred Hutch. Along with Weintraub’s other colleagues, Groudine was instrumental in establishing the Weintraub Award to honor their colleague’s exemplary leadership as a mentor.
“The Weintraub Award is one important example of the enduring nature of Hal’s work at the Hutch, and this year’s recipients represent a breadth of scientific questions that Hal would have found invigorating,” Groudine said.
The award is supported by the Fred Hutch Weintraub and Groudine Fund, which was established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars. The award includes an honorarium and travel expenses for the recipients to attend a May 3 scientific symposium at the Hutch, where the Weintraub awards will be bestowed and the recipients will present findings from their respective research.
2019 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recipients
William Allen
Ph.D., Neurosciences
Stanford University
Adair Borges
Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences
University of California, San Francisco
Ava Carter
Ph.D., Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Stanford School of Medicine
Yiming Chen
Ph.D., Neuroscience
University of California, San Francisco
Adam Dingens
Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington
Kiara Eldred
Ph.D., Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics
Johns Hopkins University
Courtney Ellison
Ph.D., Microbiology
Indiana University
Bram Lambrus
Ph.D., Molecular Biology and Genetics/Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Daniel Montoro
Ph.D., Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Harvard University
Sofia Quinodoz
Ph.D., Biology and Biological Engineering
California Institute of Technology
Alexandra Walls
Ph.D., Biochemistry
University of Washington
Gregory Wyant
Ph.D., Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stephen Zhang
Ph.D., Neuroscience
Harvard University
Note: Photos of award recipients and more information on their projects available – contact Molly McElroy for details.
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