Outstanding Students Celebrated at Convocation

Weill Cornell Medicine Auditorium

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.

Some 75 medical and graduate students received special awards, prizes, certificates and the Weill Cornell seal during three ceremonies on May 29 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 Clarence C. Coryell Prizes in Surgery and Medicine
Elizabeth Gardner Gilbert

Coryell Prize in Medicine
Cody Patrick Nolan

The Alfred Moritz Michaelis Prize in Medicine
Yunan Nie

The Oskar Diethelm Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry
Zhenzhen Shi

The Joan Severino Parisi Prize in Internal Medicine
Lee Solomon Gotesdiener

The David and Gladys Drusin Memorial Prize
Caitlin Krystyna Gribbin

The T. Campbell Thompson Prize for Excellence in Orthopedic Surgery
Tyler James Uppstrom

The Mitchell Spivak Memorial Prize in Pediatrics
Micha Virginia Thompson

The James A. Moore Scholarship
Aaron Bamberger Oswald

The Gustav Seeligmann Prize for Efficiency in Obstetrics
Marcela Maria Toro Bejarano

The Henry C. and Anne Hayworth First Honor Prize
Nathaniel Goldblatt

The Sidney and Viola Borkon Memorial Prize
Shannon Glynn

The George S. Meister Prize in Pediatrics
Lynne Michelle Rosenberg

The Elise Strang L’Esperance Prize in Public Health
Yufen Chen
Katherine T. Li

The George G. Reader Prize in Public Health
Roger Ying

The G. Thomas Shires II Prize in Surgery
Cara L. Berkowitz

The Alan Van Poznak Award for Excellence in Anesthesiology
Alexander Reinaldo Perez

The Richard N. Kohl Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry
Emily Virginia Meredith Menand

The David Clayson Prize for Creativity
Mitali Kini

The Charles Horn Prize
Connie Moying Lu

The Gustave J. Noback Memorial Prize in Anatomy
Lisa Suzanne Leslie

The Gustave J. Noback Memorial Fund for Advanced Study and Teaching in the Field of Anatomy
Paul Dylan Barone

The Weiss Prize for Excellence in Clinical Medicine
Lisle Amanda Winston

The Medical Society of the State of New York
Emily Virginia Meredith Menand

The Yvette and Seymour Feil Prize in Medicine
Amanda Catie Garfinkel

The William C. Thro Memorial Prize
Shannon Glynn

The Arthur Palmer Prize for Efficiency in Otorhinolaryngology
Julien Babak Azimzadeh

The Faith Stewart-Gordon Prize for Excellence in Rehabilitation Medicine
Lindsay Andrea Smith

The Jay Lawrence Award for Clinical Proficiency Infectious Diseases
Wesley Stewart Rogers

The Moselle and Milton Pollack Prize in Medical Ethics
Aaron Bloch

The Frederick M. Brown, M.D. Award for Allergy and Immunology
Aaron Bamberger Oswald
Bernice Yick-Tung Yan

The Anthony Seth Werner, M.D., Memorial Prize
Katherine T. Li

The Gustavo Cudkowicz Memorial Prize in Immunobiology
Eliza Rose Gentzler

The Alan von Kreuter Cancer Research Prize
Trent Johnson Walradt

The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award
Phillip James McIlhenny O’Donnell

The E. Darracott Vaughan, Jr. Prize
Andre Ruan Belarmino

The American Academy of Neurology Medical Student Prize for Excellence in Neurology
Cara L. Berkowitz

The William J. Ledger Prize in Obstetrics & Gynecology
Ngozi Rosalin Monu

The Fabrizio Michelassi Medical Student Annual Award
Yoshiko Toyoda

The Dean’s Research Award
Caitlin Krystyna Gribbin
Katherine T. Li

The Harold G. Wolff Research Prize
Cara L. Berkowitz

The Harry L. Bush, Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Vascular Biology
Anthony John Finch

Certificates of Excellence, Area of Concentration program

  • Sydney Nicole Ariagno
  • Cara L. Berkowitz
  • Bryan Joseph Dooley
  • Anthony John Finch
  • Amanda Catie Garfinkel
  • Eliza Rose Gentzler                                                   
  • Emilie Asha George
  • Lee Solomon Gottesdiener
  • Caitlin Krystyna Gribbin
  • Aditi Gupta
  • Rachel Eunji Kang
  • Katherine T. Li
  • Brandon Paul Maddy
  • Pallavi Mishra
  • Yunan Nie
  • Aaron Bamberger Oswald
  • Joseph Junyong Park
  • Zhenzhen Shi
  • Yoshiko Toyoda
  • Trent Johnson Walradt
  • Bernice Yick-Tung Yan

The Medical Student Executive Council Award
Kevin Boehm

The Paul Sherlock Prize in Internal Medicine
Shobana Logan Ramasamy

The John Metcalf Polk Prizes
Cara L. Berkowitz
Ilana Scandariato Lavina
Ryan Drey Walsh

Janet M. Glasgow-Rubin Memorial Achievement Citations

  • Cara L. Berkowitz
  • Amanda Catie Garfinkel
  • Eliza Rose Gentzler
  • Elizabeth Gardner Gilbert
  • Caitlin Krystyna Gribbin
  • Yunan Nie
  • Micha V. Thompson

Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Award
Ilana Scandariato Lavina

The Hayworth-Gold Award for Excellence in Medical Professionalism
Patrick Bolan
Eliza Cricco-Lizza
Stephanie Tsai

The Compassionate Physician Award
Lisle Amanda Winston

The Good Physician Award
Ilana Scandariato Lavina

The Leonard P. Tow Humanism Awards
Jonathan Baruch Steinman
Dr. Anthony Ogedegbe

Teaching Awards

Donald J. D’Amico, M.D., Prize for Excellence in Ophthalmology
Dr. Kimberly C. Sippel

Neal Flomenbaum, M.D., Prize for Excellence in Emergency Medicine
Dr. Sunday Clark

Richard D. Granstein, M.D., Prize for Excellence in Dermatology Award
Dr. Jonathan Zippin

Class of 1952 Resident Physician Award
Dr. Ozan Unlu

The House Staff Teaching Award

  • Dr. Mark Sonnick
  • The Senior List
  • Dr. Juliet Aizer, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Samuel Ayala, instructor in clinical emergency medicine
  • Dr. Amiran Baduashvili, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Pamela Charney, professor of clinical medicine and professor of medicine in obstetrics and gynecology
  • Dr. Brian Eiss, assistant professor of medicine
  • Dr. Ernie Esquivel, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Laura Greisman, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Bryan Leppert, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. B. Robert Meyer, professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Mary Mulcare, assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine
  • Dr. Anthony Ogedegbe, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Mark Pecker, professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Joseph Safdieh, associate professor of neurology, the Louis and Rachel Rudin Foundation Education Scholar
  • Dr. Susan Samuels, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry
  • Dr. Alice Tang, assistant professor of clinical medicine
  • Dr. Tanping Wong, assistant professor of clinical medicine

The First Year Teaching Award
Dr. Bob Kim

The Second Year Teaching Award
Dr. Juliet Aizer

Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award of Alpha Omega Alpha
Dr. Thomas Kalman

The Charles L. Bardes, M.D. Teaching Prize
Dr. Juliet Aizer

The Richard A. Herrmann, M.D. Teaching Award
Dr. Demetri Merianos

The Elliot Hochstein Teaching Award
Dr. Ilya Bialik

Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences

 

2019 Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences Award of Distinction
Katharine Hsu, M.D. ’94, Ph.D. ’93
Professor of medicine, member and attending physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

2019 Distinguished Student Commencement Speaker Award
Georgia Rose Frost, Ph.D. ’19

2019 Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award
Anjali Rajadhyaksha, Ph.D.

2019 Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring Awards (for each doctoral program)

  • Andrew Koff, Ph.D. – Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and Molecular Biology
  • Jayanta Chaudhuri, Ph.D. – Immunology and Microbial Pathogensis
  • Conor Liston, M.D., Ph.D. – Neuroscience
  • Scott Blanchard, Ph.D. – Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology
  • Miklos Toth, M.D., Ph.D. - Pharmacology

2019 Vincent du Vigneaud Research Symposium

Vincent du Vigneaud Student Talk Award

First Place

  • Emma Schatoff, “The mode of Apc disruption dictates response to Tankyrase inhibition in vivo.” (Lukas Dow lab)

Second Place

  • Shira Yomtoubian, “Inhibition of EZH2 catalytic activity selectively targets a metastatic subpopulation in triple-negative breast cancer.” (Vivek Mittal lab)

Vincent du Vigneaud First-Year Poster Presenter Award

First Place

  • Daniel Worroll, “In vitro characterization of key resides involved in small-molecule binding to MUSASHI RNA-binding protein in acute myeloid leukemia.” (Michael Karas lab)

Second Place

  • Svena Verma, “Tracking of cellular therapeutics in vivo by use of membrane bound radiometal chelate binding moieties.” (David Scheinberg lab)

Vincent du Vigneaud Second-Year & Above Poster Award

First Place

  • Alyna Katti, “A highly specific fluorescent, activatable reporter for base editing in cells, organoids and mice.” (Lukas Dow lab)

Second Place

  • Bobbie Pelham-Webb, “The role of mitotic bookmarking in the molecular resettling of the pluripotent stem cell identity.” (Effie Apostolou lab)
  • Vidur Garg, “Switching fates to understand lineage decisions and the rise of pluripotency.” (Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis lab)

2019 Julian R. Rachele Prize

  • Jacob Litke, “Highly efficient expression of circular RNA aptamers in cells using autocatalytic transcrips.” (Mentor: Samie Jaffrey, M.D., Ph.D.)
  • Sahana Rao, Ashley Jeng-Yun Chui “N-terminal degradation activates the NLRP1B inflammasome.” (Mentor: Daniel Bachovichin, Ph.D.)

2019 Student Service Award
Jordana Thibado

Physician Assistant Student and Faculty Awards

Pre-Clinical Instructor Award
Sam Senturia, M.D.

Clinical Instructor Award
Parul Shukla, M.D.

Academic Excellence Award Pre-Clinical
Kevin Yan Koenders

Academic Excellence Award Clinical
Kristin Beth Goodkin

Peer Award
Holly Birdsall

Research Excellence Award
Julie Kamperman

Humanitarian Healthcare Award
Holly Birdsall

Weill Cornell Medicine
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