Weintraub Award recognizes outstanding graduate students

The 12 winners of the 2006 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recently came to campus to share their work and receive an award that recognizes outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences.

"The reason this was set up was to honor Hal and to remember his contributions to the Center. One of the things he felt very strongly about was training people," said Dr. Susan Parkhurst, who coordinates the annual award program and symposium along with Drs. Sue Biggins and Nina Salama. "It's nice to have something in his memory so we remember him and his work every year, and it's really nice for the students because there is no other award of this kind for graduate students."

The award recognizes students from every corner of the globe, and it has become very well known. The journals Cell, Science and Nature publish the names of the winners. They also receive a certificate signed by Dr. Lee Hartwell, Center president and director, a $400 honorarium, and the opportunity to present their work at the one-day symposium. The Fred Hutchinson Weintraub and Groudine Fund, established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars, covered the expenses for the awardees.

Faculty potential

The program started in 2000. Since then, the award has come full-circle, Parkhurst said. And while this year there was no recipient from the Center, former awardees and nominees have applied for faculty positions at the Center. "Clearly we're recognizing people early in their careers that are the caliber of researcher we want to hire. They are really outstanding," she said.

2007 Weintraub Award recipients

• Sung Hee Ahn-Upton, The Rockefeller University
• Michael A. Crickmore, Columbia University
• Ellen Ezratty, Columbia University
• Douglas Fowler, The Scripps Research InstituteM
• Gaorav Gupta, Cornell University Medical College
• Gianna Hammer, University of California, Berkeley
• Seyun Kim, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Carolyn Phillips, University of California, Berkeley
• Zachary Pincus, Stanford University
• Scott Tomlins, University of Michigan
• Omer Yilmaz, University of Michigan
• Hui Zhu, Case Western Reserve University