Prestigious Siegel Family Awards Presented to Faculty and Students
Recognized for his outstanding professional achievement, Dr. Shahin Rafii has been named the inaugural winner of the Siegel Family Award for Outstanding Medical Research.
Medallions presented to the Siegel Family Student Prize winners
The annual award recognizes research faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College who demonstrate exceptional scientific skills and dedication, as well as professional achievement and innovation, and carries a $50,000, unrestricted cash prize. Dr. Rafii, director of the Ansary Stem Cell Institute, professor of genetic medicine and professor of medicine, accepted his award at commencement last month. This award is one of 10 prizes bestowed annually to Weill Cornell faculty and medical students through endowed gifts from Overseer Herbert J. Siegel and his wife, Jeanne. Collectively, the Siegel Family awards are Weill Cornell’s most prestigious and generous accolades and are given to recognize leadership, achievement and service to the medical college.
Dr. Olaf Andersen, professor of physiology and biophysics and program director of the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program, received the 2014 Siegel Family Faculty Award. The award, characterized as the “Nobel prize for teaching” by Weill Cornell leadership, also carries a $50,000, unrestricted cash prize. It recognizes an exceptional Weill Cornell faculty member who demonstrates pedagogical excellence, outstanding scientific achievement and a record of dedicated educational service to the medical college.
In addition, eight medical school students — two from each class — were awarded Siegel Family Student Prizes, which carry $25,000 scholarships to help support and enhance their medical education at Weill Cornell. They are:
Justin Perez,'14
Dara Zyburo, '14
Max Nowicki, '15
Andrew Simmons, '15
Jack Levy, '16
Cindy Parra, '16
Jasmin Harpe, '17
Robert Runyon, '17
The students were selected for the scholarships because of a demonstrated financial need, high academic achievement and leadership potential in their fields.
Additional Awards and Honors
Dr. Jack Barchas, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, the Barklie McKee Henry Professor of Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry, was made an honorary member of the American Psychoanalytic Association during its 2014 meeting on Jan. 15 at the Waldorf Astoria. This honor is bestowed upon individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. The association, the oldest national psychoanalytic organization in the nation, focuses on education, research and membership development.
Dr. Lisa Roth, the Charles, Lillian and Betty Neuwirth Clinical Scholar in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, assistant professor of pediatrics and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, was awarded a fellowship from the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program in January. The two-year, state-funded award provides funding for community-related research specific to an institution's service area. It is an open and flexible program allowing institutions to hire fellows in any subject that represents a strategically important area of growth for the institution.
Dr. Robbyn Sockolow, associate professor of pediatrics and associate professor of clinical pediatrics, has been named a "Woman of Distinction in Medicine" by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. The award will be presented at the annual Women of Distinction Luncheon on May 14 at the Waldorf Astoria. The foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis through financing underdeveloped areas of research, hosting educational workshops and publication of a medical journal.