The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences honored students in the Class of 2022 for their academic achievements during its convocation ceremony on May 18.
The ceremony recognized students who are graduating with their master’s degrees, as well as those who earned special awards and prizes for their accomplishments accomplishments in research, scholarship and service.
In addition to honoring students, the ceremony also recognized the 2022 Weill Cornell Graduate School Alumni Award of Distinction winner Dr. John MacMicking (Ph.D. ’97), as well as graduate school faculty.
The following is a complete list of all of the award winners:
Alumni Award of Distinction
John MacMicking, Ph.D. ’97
Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine
David P. HajjarExcellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award
Mary Baylies, Ph.D.
BCMB Teaching and Mentoring Award
Kirk Deitsch, Ph.D.
IMP Teaching and Mentoring Award
Joe Sun, Ph.D.
PBSB Teaching and Mentoring Award
Jason Mezey, Ph.D.
Pharmacology Teaching and Mentoring Award
John Blenis, Ph.D.
Julian R. Rachele Prize
- Joshua Weiss, “Anatomic position determines oncogenic specificity in melanoma.” 354 Nature, Vol 604, 14 April 2022 (BCMB Program, Mentor, Dr. Richard White)
- Bianca Diaz, “Base editing sensor libraries for high-throughput engineering andfunctional analysis of cancer-associated single nucleotide variants.” Nature Biotechnology, 14 February 2022 (BCMB Program, Mentor, Dr. Lucas Dow)
Student Service Award
- Ifeh Akano (Pharmacology)for Outstanding Outreach and Service
- Co-president of the Tri-I Outreach Club; founder of the Tri-I Mentorship Initiative; co-director for the Community Leader Fellowship Program; co-organizer Tri-I Outreach Fair
- Thais Klevorn (IMP) for Outstanding Outreach and Service
- Community outreach coordinator and co-president of the Tri-Institutional Minority Society (TIMS)
Student Diversity Award
Dianne Lumaquin (BCMB), mentor for the Gateways Program; co-chair of FACES (Female Association for Clinicians, Educators and Scientists; graduate student representative on the Diversity in Science Council
Distinguished Student Commencement Speaker Award
Andrea Neil Forbes (PBSB Program, Mentor, Dr. Ekta Khurana)
Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium Awards
Vincent du Vigneaud First-Year Poster Presentation Awards
First Place
- Margarida Rosa, “Lipid Scrambling Mechanisms of β1-adrenergic Receptor(β1AR) Revealed by Computational Experiments.” (Dr. George Khelashvili)
Second Place
- Patrick Wallisch,” Engineering Synthetic Enzyme Armed Killer (SEAKER) Cells for the Treatment of Solid Human Tumors.” (Dr. David Scheinberg)
Third Place
- Brittney Bobowski, "H1 Involved in Recruitment to ssDNA as a Possible DNA Damage Response." (Dr. Yael David)
Vincent du Vigneaud Second-Year & Above Poster Awards
First Place
- Thasin Peyear, “Screening for Lipid Bilayer-Modifying Compounds using Gramicidin-based Simulation Assays: A Scaffold Based Approach.” (Dr. Olaf Andersen)
Second Place
- Annalise Schweickart, “AutoFocus: A Hierarchical Framework to Explore Multi-Omic Disease Associations Spanning Multiple Scales of Biomolecular Interaction.” (Dr. Jan Krumsiek)
Third Place
- Kate Dunmore, “Elucidating the Role of E2F Transcription Factors in Advanced Prostate Cancer.” (Dr. David Rickman)
Vincent du Vigneaud Oral Presentation Awards
First Place
- Dianne Lumaquin, “Lipid Droplets are a Metabolic Vulnerability in Melanoma.” (Dr. Richard White)
Second Place
- Anoushka Joglekar, “A Cell-Type Centric View of Isoform Expression Reveals Combination Patterns of Transcript Elements Across Brain Regions and Development.” (Dr. Hagen Tilgner)
Third Place
- Helene Jahn, “Oligomers of the Beta Barrel Protein VDAC Scramble Phospholipids at the Outer Membrane for Efficient Lipid Import into Mitochondria.” (Dr. Anant Menon)
Physician Assistant Student and Faculty Awards
Outstanding Preclinical Instructor Award
William J. Ameres, M.S., PA-C
Outstanding Clinical Instructor Award
Dino Berruti, PA-C
Academic Excellence Award Preclinical
Shreena Patel
Academic Excellence Award Clinical
Chace Isabella Carpenter
Peer Award
Kathleen Bidad
Research Excellence Award
Lauren Socia
Dr. Verne E. Chaney Humanitarian Healthcare Award
Kathleen Bidad