SEATTLE — March 8, 2010 — Thirteen graduate students from institutes throughout North America have been chosen to receive the 2010 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 7 at the Hutchinson Center. The symposium will include scientific presentations by the awardees as well as poster presentations by Hutchinson Center graduate students.
The award, established in 2000, honors the late Harold M. Weintraub, Ph.D., a founding member of the Center'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 2010 Weintraub awardees follows. To receive a research summary and CV of any of the recipients, please contact Carol Insalaco, Media Relations assistant, 206-667-5469 or <cinsalac@fhcrc.org>. Digital photos of most of the awardees are available as well.
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2010 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award Recipients
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.)
• Yaniv Erlich (Hometown: Ra'anana, Israel)
Ph.D. candidate, Watson School of Biological Sciences
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Mamta Tahiliani (Hometown: San Jose, Calif.)
Ph.D. in Immunology awarded in 2009
Harvard University/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Erez Lieberman-Aiden (Hometown: New York, N.Y.)
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Applied Math, Harvard/MIT Division of Health Science and Technology
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)
• Deok-Ho Kim (Hometown: Baltimore, Md./Seoul, Korea)
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Aaron Andalman (Hometown: Takoma Park, Md.)
Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Science awarded in 2009
• Yasemin Sancak (Hometown: Mugla, Turkey)
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Biology
Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
• Hannah Seidel (Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.)
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)
• Maulik Patel (Hometown: Farmingdale, N.Y.)
Ph.D. in Neuroscience awarded in 2009
University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, Calif.)
• Melody Wu (Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan)
Ph.D. candidate, Neuroscience Graduate Program
University of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester, Mass.)
• Chengjian Li (Hometown: Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China)
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
University of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester, Mass.)/Gulbenkian Ph.D. Program (Portugal)
• Pedro Batista (Hometown: Lisbon, Portugal)
Ph.D. candidate, Program in Molecular Medicine and Gulbenkian Ph.D.
Program in Biomedicine
University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, Wash.)
• Bungo Akiyoshi (Hometown: Kakegawa, Japan)
Ph.D. candidate, Molecular and Cellular Biology program
Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
• Allison Carey (Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Ph.D./M.D. candidate, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
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