SEATTLE – March, 10 – Thirteen graduate students from institutes throughout the United States and the United Kingdom have been chosen to receive the 2015 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Nominations were solicited internationally; the winners were selected on the basis of the quality, originality and significance of their work.
The recipients, all advanced students at or near the completion of their studies in the biological sciences, will participate in a scientific symposium May 1 at Fred Hutch consisting of scientific presentations by the awardees.
The award, established in 2000, honors the late Harold M. Weintraub, Ph.D., a founding member of the Hutch’s Basic Sciences Division who in 1995 died from brain cancer at age 49. Weintraub was an international leader in the field of molecular biology; among his many contributions, he identified genes responsible for instructing cells to differentiate, or develop, into specific tissues such as muscle and bone.
“Hal was one of the most outstanding scientists of his generation, as well as one of the most unpretentious. Hal had the knack of identifying the important questions in biology and designing experimental approaches that were creative, simple and elegant,” said Mark Groudine, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director the Hutchinson Center and a former friend and colleague of Weintraub.
“By nurturing colleagues, students and postdocs, and helping all of us become better scientists Hal was instrumental in establishing the collegial atmosphere at the Hutchinson Center. We believe having a symposium recognizing the achievements of young scientists is a great way to honor Hal and the recipients of this award,” said Groudine, who was instrumental in establishing the award.
The award recipients will receive a certificate, travel expenses and an honorarium from the Weintraub and Groudine Fund, established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars.
Editor’s note: A complete list of 2015 Weintraub awardees follows. CVs and research summaries of each student’s project are available upon request. Digital photos of most of the awardees are available as well.
2015 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award Recipients
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Cold Spring Harbor, New York)
Ian Peikon
Ph.D., neurobiology
Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
Julia K Goodrich
Ph.D. candidate, molecular biology
Harvard-MIT HST Program (Cambridge, Mass.)
James E. Dahlman
Ph.D., biotechnology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)
Silvana Konermann
Ph.D. candidate, neuroscience
Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)
Kyle M. Loh
Ph.D. candidate, stem cell biology
Shifeng Xue
Ph.D., genetics
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley)
Samuel H. Sternberg
Ph.D., biology
University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco)
Scott Coyle
Ph.D. candidate, biochemistry
Silvia Rouskin
Ph.D., molecular biology
University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK)
Ludmil B.Alexandrov
Ph.D., cancer genomics
University of Washington
C.J. Cambier
Ph.D., biology
Nitobe London
Ph.D. candidate, molecular and cellular biology
Benjamin Vernot
Ph.D. candidate, genome sciences
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