On the eve of their commencement, students from Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences were recognized for their outstanding achievements.
More than 50 medical and graduate students received special awards, prizes, certificates and the Weill Cornell seal during three ceremonies on May 30 in Uris Auditorium and Griffis Faculty Club. The awards acknowledge the students' exceptional academic achievement, scholarship, research, teaching and service. The ceremony also honored other students, alumni, faculty and staff.
The following is a complete list of all of the award winners:
Weill Cornell Medical College
Student Awards
The Coryell Prize in Surgery
Jaime Lynn Bernstein
The Coryell Prize in Medicine
Amanda Su
Alfred Moritz Michaelis Prize in Medicine
Chou Chou
Oskar Diethelm Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry
Daniel Jacob Eden
The Joan Severino Parisi Prize in Internal Medicine
Cole B. Hirschfeld
The David and Gladys Drusin Memorial Prize
Benjamin Langan Gordon
The T. Campbell Thompson Prize for Excellence in Orthopedic Surgery
Akhil Surasani Reddy
The Mitchell Spivak Memorial Prize in Pediatrics
Eric James Kutscher
The James A. Moore Scholarship
Solomon Husain
The Gustav Seeligmann Prize for Efficiency in Obstetrics
Simone Chantal Elder
The Henry C. and Anne Hayworth First Honor Prize
Bethina Liu
The Sidney and Viola Borkon Memorial Prize
Charles Kinzig
The George S. Meister Prize in Pediatrics
Alexandra Paige Berman
The Elise Strang L’Esperance Prize in Public Health
Sasha Hernandez
Anna Sophia McKenney
The George G. Reader Prize in Public Health
Eric James Kutscher
Paul Hsin-ti McClelland
G. Thomas Shires II Prize in Surgery
Shahdabul Faraz
The Alan Van Poznak Award for Excellence in Anesthesiology
Eugene Haskell Carragee
Stephanie Anh Sutter
The Richard N. Kohl Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry
Joshua Damian Salvi
The David Clayson Prize for Creativity
Stephanie Chen
The Charles Horn Prize
Rolake Oluwaseun Alabi
The Gustave J. Noback Memorial Prize in Anatomy
Benjamin Langan Gordon
The Gustave J. Noback Memorial Fund for Advanced Study and Teaching in the Field of Anatomy
Akhil Surasani Reddy
The Weiss Prize for Excellence in Clinical Medicine
Amanda Allison Rupert
The Medical Society of the State of New York
Caitlin Brietta Finn
The Yvette and Seymour Feil Prize in Medicine
Elliott Joseph Brea
The William C. Thro Memorial Prize
Charles Kinzig
The Arthur Palmer Prize for Efficiency in Otorhinolaryngology
Vishal Sanatkumar Patel
The Herman L. Jacobius Prize in Pathology
Jennifer Jane Chia
The Jay Lawrence Award for Clinical Proficiency Infectious Diseases
Cole B. Hirschfeld
The Moselle and Milton Pollack Prize in Medical Ethics
Eric James Kutscher
The Henry Adelman Memorial Award for Excellence in Geriatric Medicine
Ariana Mireille Levin
Natalie Zhen Wong
The Anthony Seth Werner, M.D., Memorial Prize
Colin Brooks Ogilvie
The Gustavo Cudkowicz Memorial Prize in Immunobiology
Sasha Hernandez
The Edward Norton Prize in Ophthalmology
Ariana Mireille Levin
The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award
Patrick James Bedard
The E. Darracott Vaughan, Jr. Prize
Abimbola Ayangbesan
The American Academy of Neurology Medical Student Prize for Excellence in Neurology
Sarah Christine Parauda
The William J. Ledger Prize in Obstetrics & Gynecology
Fabiana Maria Kreines
The Fabrizio Michelassi Medical Student Annual Award
Caitlin Brietta Finn
The Dean’s Research Award
Chou Chou
The Sondra Lee Shaw Memorial Prize
Kristen Kay Berry
The Harold G. Wolff Research Prize
Priya Rani Gupta
The Dr. Harold Lamport Biomedical Research Prize
Venkat Boddapati
The Dean William Mecklenburg Polk Prize for Research
Marta Nikolayevna Dzyadyk
The Harry L. Bush, Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Vascular Biology
Seth Zachary Aschen
Certificates of Excellence, Area of Concentration program
- Samrawit Senay Abraha
- Kristen Kay Berry
- Peter Davis Chamberlin
- Chou Chou
- Daniel Jacob Eden
- Caitlin Brietta Finn
- Solomon Husain
- Joseph Eric Koressel
- Fabiana Maria Kreines
- Eric James Kutscher
- Paul Hsin-ti McClelland
- Emily Nash
- Timothy Shea, Jr.
The Medical Student Executive Council Award
Eric James Kutscher
The Paul Sherlock Prize in Internal Medicine
Chou Chou
The John Metcalf Polk Prizes
Colin Brooks Ogilvie
Akhil Surasani Reddy
Joshua Damian Salvi
Glasgow-Rubin Memorial Achievement
Jaime Lynn Bernstein
Christiana Bitas
Nina Rebecca Blank
Caitlin Brietta Finn
The Hayworth-Gold Award for Excellence in Medical Professionalism
Cara Berkowitz
Lynne Rosenberg
Ilana Scandariato
The Compassionate Physician Award
Elen Gusman
The Good Physician Award
Caitlin Brietta Finn
Leonard P. Tow Humanism Awards, presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation
Joshua Damian Salvi
Dr. Susan Ball
Teaching Awards
Class of 1952 Resident Physician Award
Dr. Emily Woodbury
The House Staff Teaching Award
Dr. Peggy Leung
Senior List
- Dr. Amiran Baduashvili, assistant professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Ilya Bialik, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics
- Dr. Pamela Charney, professor of clinical medicine and professor of medicine in obstetrics and gynecology
- Dr. Vishal Dodia, assistant professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Brian Eiss, assistant professor of medicine
- Dr. Ernie Esquivel, assistant professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Dimitri Francois, assistant professor of psychiatry
- Dr. B. Robert Meyer, professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Anthony Ogedegbe, assistant professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Larry Palmer, professor of physiology and biophysics and Thomas H. Meikle Jr., Professor of Medical Education
- Dr. David Pisapia, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine
- Dr. Robyn Rosenblum, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics
- Dr. Joseph Safdieh, associate professor of neurology, Louis and Rachel Rudin Foundation Education Scholar
- Dr. Jonathan St. George, assistant professor of medicine
- Dr. Alice Tang, assistant professor of clinical medicine
- Dr. Natalie Weathered, assistant professor of clinical neurology
First Year Teaching Award
Dr. Amir Soumekh
Second Year Teaching Award
Dr. Juliet Aizer
Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award of Alpha Omega Alpha
Dr. Catherine Hart
The Charles L. Bardes, M.D. Teaching Prize
Dr. Demetri Merianos
The Richard A. Herrmann, M.D. Teaching Award
Dr. Ernie Esquivel
The Elliot Hochstein Teaching Award
Dr. Tirsit Asfaw
Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award
Janet Braam, PhD ‘85
Weiss Professor and Chair, Department of BioSciences, Rice University
2018 Distinguished Student Commencement Speaker Award
Aaron Chang, PhD ’18
2018 Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award
Yueming Li, PhD
2018 Student Service Award
Thomas Galassi
2018 Vincent du Vigneaud Research Symposium
Vincent du Vigneaud Student Talk Award
First Place
- Maria Bustillo, “Tension-Sensitive Regulators of Cell Dynamics and Tissue Remodeling.” (Jennifer Zallen lab)
Second Place
- Ron Gejman, “The Fault in Our TCRs: Searching for Off-Targets in T cell Receptor Based Therapies.” (David Scheinberg lab)
Vincent du Vigneaud First-Year Poster Presenter Award
First Place
- Tom Rossetti, “Acute Inhibition of Aromatase Induces an Anhedonic Behavior in Male and Female Mice.” (Kristen Pleil lab)
Second Place
- Zaki Molvi, “Monitoring Inflammatory Demyelination via Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping of Basic Protein Degradation.” (Yi Wang lab)
Vincent du Vigneaud Second-Year & Above Poster Award
First Place
- Navid Paknejad, “Regulation of Inositol Triphosphate Receptor by Ca2+ and IP3.” (Richard Hite lab)
Second Place
- Nevin Yusufova, “Elucidating the Role of Linker Histone Mutations in Chromatin Accessibility and Transcriptional Programming in B-cell Lymphoma.” (Ari Melnick lab)
2018 Julian R. Rachele Prize
- Asaf Poran and Christopher Nötzel: Poran A*, Nötzel C*, Aly O, Mencia-Trinchant N, Harris C, Guzman M, Hassane D, Elemento O, Kafsack B, “Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a signature of sexual commitment in malaria parasites.” Nature (2017) (mentors: Olivier Elemento and Björn F.C. Kafsack)
- Theodoros Giavridis: Giavridis T, van der Stegen SJC, Eyquem J, Hamieh M, Piersigilli A, Sadelain M, “CAR T cell-induced cytokine release syndrome is mediated by macrophages and abated by IL-1 blockade.” Nature Medicine (in press) (mentor: Michel Sadelain)
Physician Assistant Student and Faculty Awards
Pre-Clinical Instructor Award
William J. Ameres, PA-C, M.S.
Clinical Instructor Award
Alla Bardash, MD
Academic Excellence Award Pre-Clinical
Kelly Lynn Barker
Academic Excellence Award Clinical
Kelly Lynn Barker
Peer Award
Emily Louise Van Weelden
Research Excellence Award
Marissa Lynn Hammer