Fred Hutch announces 2016 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Awardees

SEATTLE – March 1, 2016 – Twelve graduate students from institutes throughout the United States have been chosen to receive the 2016 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 Friday, May 6, 2016 at Fred Hutch in Seattle, Washington. The symposium will consist of scientific presentations by the awardees.

Established in 2000, the award 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 a leader in the field of molecular biology.  His many contributions included, identifying the genes responsible for instructing cells to differentiate, or develop, into specific tissues such as muscle and bone.

Weintraub was known as one of the outstanding scientists of his generation. Even more, he was regarded as an unpretentious leader and a key mentor to countless young scientists at Fred Hutch.

“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 at Fred Hutch 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 Hutch. 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 2016 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.

2016 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Awardees

University of California, San Diego (San Diego, California)
Corina E. Antal
Ph.D. candidate, biomedical sciences

Stanford University (Palo Alto, California)
Ryan A. Flynn
Ph.D. candidate, dermatology/cancer biology

Kevin Yackle
Ph.D. candidate, biochemistry

Rockefeller University (New York, New York)
Alexander Gitlin
M.D./Ph.D. candidate, molecular immunology

Wenyan Jiang
Ph.D. candidate, biology

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Emily Maclary
Ph.D. candidate, genetics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Kara L. McKinley
Ph.D., candidate, molecular biology

University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California)
James Nunez
Ph.D., molecular biology

New York University School of Medicine (New York, New York)
Deepshika Ramanan
Ph.D. candidate, immunology

University of Washington (Seattle, Washington)
Matthew Snyder
Ph.D. candidate, genome sciences

University of California, San Francisco, (San Francisco, California)
Trevor Sorrells
Ph.D. candidate, molecular and cellular biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Tim Wang
Ph.D. candidate, biology