BSD and Pritzker School of Medicine honor graduates at 537th Convocation

Last weekend, the University of Chicago held its 537th Convocation Ceremony, where graduates from all divisions and schools marked the culmination of some of the most challenging and enriching years of their lives. Seventy PhD candidates across the BSD were recognized at a Divisional Academic Ceremony, along with 19 Master of Public Health graduates, eight Master of Science in Public Health Sciences, and 38 Master of Science students from our various graduate education committees. After graduation, many PhD students will continue their academic careers in academic or government research positions or by returning to medical school; several others are pursuing careers in industry research, technology development, communications, policy and regulation, or business and commercialization.

Last week, the Pritzker School of Medicine held its own ceremony to individually recognize 87 graduating MD students, including 12 MD/PhD graduates. Most of the MD graduates are already preparing to continue their medical education in residency programs, including 11 who will undergo their residency at University of Chicago Medicine and pursue programs in various medical and surgical specialties.

As part of this year's convocation ceremonies, several PhD and MD graduates received divisional and program awards for their research projects and scientific presentations.

PhD Program Awards

• Yeonwoo Park, Best Overall Dissertation, Genetics, Genomics, & Systems Biology, “The Possible And The Accessible: Epistatis And Contingency In Protein Sequence Space” (Advisor: Joe Thornton)
• Daniel Schwartz, Public Health Sciences, “Maximizing And Borrowing Information In Randomized Trials” (Stephen Raudenbush)
• Selene Clay, Human Genetics, “Characterizing Genetic Risks For Asthma” (Carole Ober)
• Matthew Funsten, Immunology, “Influence Of Dietary Protein Source And The Microbiota On Type-1 Diabetes,” Alexander Chervonsky
• Rosemary Huggins, Cancer Biology, “Endocrine Therapy Resistance-Associated Ero-Y537s Mutation Alters Ero/Pr Crosstalk In Breast Cancer” (Geoffrey Greene)
• Jessica Spring, Microbiology (Tatyana Golovkina)
• Katya Frazier, Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition, “Circadian Rhythms And Gut Microbiota: Implications Of Diurnal Interactions On Host Metabolism And Immunity” (Eugene Chang)
• Zach Miller, Ecology and Evolution, “Theoretical Approaches To Environmental Feedbacks And Community Coexistence” (Stefano Allesina)
• Sherzod Tokamov, Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology, “Regulation Of Hippo Signaling Via Proteolytic Degradation And Actomysin Dynamics” (Richard Fehon)
• Can Dong, Neurobiology, “Hippocampal Ca1 And Ca3 Network Dynamics Underlying Episodic Memories” (Mark Sheffield)
• Barbara Peysakhovich, Computational Neuroscience, “Cortical And Subcortical Contributions To Visual Category Decisions” (David Freedman)

Pritzker School of Medicine Awards

Overall Awards

• The Joseph A. Capps Award for outstanding proficiency in clinical medicine: Ian Waters & Camron Shirkhodaie
• The John Van Prohaska Award, for outstanding potential in teaching, research, and clinical medicine: Reem Elorbany & Swetha Tatineni
• The Outstanding Achievement Award: Akosua Oppong
• The Mary Roberts Scott Memorial Prize given to a female medical student who demonstrates leadership and academic excellence during both the basic and clinical science years: Hannah Priddy
• The Pritzker Leadership Award for outstanding extracurricular accomplishments during four years in medical school: Steven Server & Dru Brenner
• The Urban Health Initiative Strongin Community Service Prize given to one or more senior medical students who has contributed the most through community service: James Zhang & Amrita Mohanty
• The Pritzker School of Medicine Advocacy & Equity Award given to a senior medical student who has been an advocate for service, research, and policy changes which address inequities in health and a leader in promoting a diverse and inclusive community for all, voted by their peers: Olivier Joseph

Clinical Department Award Recipients

• The Departmental Award in recognition of outstanding performance in the field of Anesthesia and Critical Care: Eric Arellano
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the field of Family Medicine: Juan Rojas & Isaiah Sommers
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the field of Medicine: Camron Shirkhodaie
• The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Excellence Award for demonstrated excellence in the specialty of Emergency Medicine: Ngozi Nwabueze
• The Richard W. Reilly Prize for Outstanding Aptitude in Gastroenterology: Christine McIntosh
• The Steven Lukes Memorial Prize for excellence in the fields of both Medicine and Neurology: Jackson Moran
• The Peter Huttenlocher and Douglas Buchanan Prize in Neurology for best medical student clinician/researcher: Zaina Zayyad
• The Dr. Javad Hekmat-panah Award for outstanding performance in the field of Neurological Surgery: Jae Sone
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Neurology: Matthew Du
• The Departmental Award in recognition of outstanding performance in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology: Melissa Kuriloff
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the field of Ophthalmology & Visual Science: Gabriel Kaufmann
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Pathology: Wenli Dai
• The Departmental Award for the most meritorious research involving children or developmental biology: Maggie Shope
• The F. Howell Wright Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Pediatrics: Sarah Vaughen
• The Diana Woo Memorial Award for excellence in Clinical Pediatrics: Devika Jaishankar
• The Daniel X. Freedman Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Psychiatry: Olivier Joseph
• The Nels M. Strandjord Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Radiology: Ehizokha Ihionkhan
• The Departmental Award for outstanding performance in the general field of Surgery: Michael Okoreeh

Senior Scientific Session Awards

• Franklin McLean Medical Student Research Award, granted to the non-PhD student who has performed the most meritorious research in the medical field: Reem Hamoda (Mentor: Milda Saunders), “Racial-Ethnic and Sex Disparities in Renal Transplant Waitlisting in the United States: Effect of Organ Allocation Policy Change and ESRD Network Level Influences”

Oral Presentation Winners

• Catherine Dobson Prize, for the best oral presentation given by a student in the area of Scientific Investigation in Clinical Research or Social Sciences: Amanda Zhang (Mentor: Jayant Pinto), “Video Calling Reduces Loneliness for Hearing Impaired Older US Adults during COVID-19”
• Leon O. Jacobson Basic Science Prize, granted to the MD/PhD student whose Basic Science Research is judged to be the most meritorious from among session participants: Molly Imgruet (Mentor: Megan McNerney),  “Loss of a 7q gene, CUX1, disrupts epigenetically driven DNA repair and drives therapy-related myeloid neoplasms”
• Leon O. Jacobson Prize, for the best oral presentation given by a non-PhD student in the area of the Basic Biological Sciences: Je Yeong Sone (Mentor: Issam A. Awad), “Mechanistic microRNAs as Diagnostic Biomarkers of Cavernous Angiomas with Symptomatic Hemorrhage (CASH)”
• Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association Prize, for the best presentation made by a student in the area of Applied Scholarship: Christine Mozer (Mentor: Neda Laiteerapong), “Examining Suicide Assessment and Management in an Academic Medical Center Primary Care Clinic”
• The Alpern Preisig Research Prize for Impact on Society, for the oral presentation whose research was judged to be most impactful on society: Mweya Waetjen (Mentor: John Schneider), “Pre-exposure prophylaxis persistence among Greek sexual minority men: Results from the PrEP for Greece (P4G) study”

Poster Presentation Winners

• Award for Best Poster Describing Applied Scholarship: Devika Jaishankar (Mentor: Anna Volerman), “Current Practices, Challenges, and Improvements in School Asthma Care: School Stakeholder Perspectives”
• Award for Best Poster Describing Scientific Investigation in Basic Sciences: Pranav Haravu (Mentor: Russell R. Reid), “The biomechanics of chewing and suckling in the infant: a potential mechanism for physiologic metopic suture closure”
• Award for Best Poster Describing Scientific Investigation in Clinical Research or Social Sciences: Michael Hermsen (Mentor: William Parker), “Using age as a prognostic factor for short-term survival improves life support allocation under Crisis Standards of Care”
• The Alpern Preisig Research Prize for Impact on Society, for the poster presentation whose research was judged to be most impactful on society: Juan Rojas (Mentor: Jennifer Rusiecki), “Contraceptive Counseling: Determining effects of a QI intervention”