Best Scientific Publication – Basic Sciences
Eligibility: Nominee must be the first or corresponding/last author of a peer-reviewed, laboratory-based investigation into mechanisms or processes published in 2025 or 2026. The publication must offer fundamental new knowledge or a paradigm-shifting discovery in pediatric basic science.
Nomination Instructions: Describe the specific merits of the submitted citation, including journal impact metrics or early citation velocity. Clearly articulate how this specific discovery advances the field. Detail the nominee’s independent role in conceptualizing, executing, and leading the study, moving beyond routine laboratory supervision. Attach a PDF of the publication when completing the nomination form.
Best Scientific Publication – Clinical/Translational/Outcomes
Eligibility: Nominee must be the first or corresponding/last author of a study published in 2025 or 2026 utilizing clinical samples or epidemiological data that directly translate to a major clinical problem in pediatrics. Note that there is a separate award for clinical trials.
Nomination Instructions: State the clinical problem addressed and explain how this publication alters or influences current clinical perspectives. Provide the journal’s reach or impact metrics. Explicitly define the nominee’s leadership role in the multi-disciplinary team required to bring this translational work to print. Attach a PDF of the publication when completing the nomination form.
Best Scientific Publication – Clinical Trial
Eligibility: Nominee must have played a principal or major collaborative leadership role in a multi-center or high-impact clinical trial paper published in 2025 or 2026 that directly shapes evidence-based pediatric practice.
Nomination Instructions: Describe the trial’s scope, design, and impact on pediatric guidelines or therapeutic standards. Detail the faculty member’s exact contribution to the trial’s design, execution, or analysis, and explain how their leadership was vital to the completion and publication of the study. Attach a PDF of the publication when completing the nomination form.
Best Quality Improvement Publication
Eligibility: Nominee must have made a principal contribution to a peer-reviewed publication in 2024 or 2025 that utilizes a recognized, systematic improvement framework (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, IHA) to tangibly optimize care delivery, safety, or clinical outcomes within a pediatric healthcare system.
Nomination Instructions: Identify the systematic QI framework utilized. Detail the pre- and post-intervention data demonstrating measurable improvement in patient safety, clinical care, or systemic efficiency. Describe how the nominee led the institutional or regional cultural shift required to execute this project. Attach a PDF of the publication when completing the nomination form.
Basic Research Mentor
Eligibility: This award honors a faculty member who has demonstrably accelerated the research trajectories, independent funding, and academic careers of their mentees, leaving a permanent imprint on the pediatric basic science pipeline.
Nomination Instructions: Provide concrete examples of the nominee’s mentoring philosophy in action. List specific grant awards (e.g., K-to-R transitions, institutional training grants), first-author publications, and academic appointments achieved by their mentees directly due to this mentorship. What distinguishes their leadership as an institutional beacon for young scientists?
Clinical Research Mentor
Eligibility: This award recognizes a faculty clinician or physician-scientist who has systematically guided the research progress, clinical investigation skills, and career advancement of pediatric trainees and junior faculty.
Nomination Instructions: Quantify the success of the nominee’s mentees by listing their clinical publications, presentations, national committee placements, or career advancements. Describe how the nominee creates an environment that balances rigorous clinical investigation with sustainable professional development.
Hal Simon Career Development Mentor
Eligibility: Awarded to a senior faculty member or physician whose overarching mentorship has structurally transformed the professional vitality of a division, section, core, or broad-based initiative, elevating the collective success of their peers.
Nomination Instructions: Focus on systemic impact. Describe how the nominee’s structural mentorship has elevated an entire group or division (e.g., programmatic funding growth, a surge in faculty promotions, or low turnover). Provide evidence of their long-term advocacy for faculty wellness, leadership promotion, and institutional equity.
Excellence in Surgical Mentorship Award
Eligibility: Awarded to a distinguished surgeon who pairs exceptional technical precision with a profound commitment to passing on the craft of surgery and advancing the careers of colleagues and learners. This individual is recognized for their outstanding ability to translate clinical and intraoperative expertise into teachable skills, serving as a dedicated mentor and champion for surgical trainees, junior faculty, or both.
Nomination Instructions: Provide evidence of the nominee’s technical mastery and their exceptional impact as a clinical mentor. Describe how they successfully pass on tactical, hands-on skills and clinical judgment to junior faculty and/or surgical trainees. Demonstrate how their guidance, sponsorship, or daily collaboration elevates the professional growth and clinical confidence of those around them.
Excellence in Clinical Research (Early Career)
Eligibility: Open to Instructors, Assistant Professors, and faculty within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or medical residency who have played an instrumental, entrepreneurial role in building or launching an innovative new clinical research program, core, or novel investigative methodology. Note there is an award for mid-senior career faculty and a separate award for a game changing clinical program.
Nomination Instructions: Define the specific innovation or research program launched. Describe the junior faculty member’s unique leadership role in navigating institutional hurdles to establish it. Provide early data or milestones demonstrating how this program has already advanced or expanded the department’s research capabilities.
Excellence in Clinical Research (Mid-Late Career)
Eligibility: Open to Associate Professors, Professors, or faculty with >10 years since completing their terminal research degree or medical residency who have demonstrated sustained national-caliber leadership in developing, scaling, or spearheading a groundbreaking research program or clinical investigation infrastructure. Note there is an award for early career faculty and a separate award for a game changing clinical program.
Nomination Instructions: Detail the innovation or research infrastructure led by the nominee. Highlight the national prominence, collaborative reach, and external funding or recognition this program has brought to the Department of Pediatrics. Contrast the department’s capabilities before and after this program’s implementation.
Pediatric Clinical Excellence Award (Early-Mid Career)
Eligibility: Awarded to an outstanding, early-to-mid-career clinician (<20 years postgraduate experience) who demonstrates exceptional clinical acumen and a rapidly rising reputation for excellence. This individual exemplifies the highest standards of patient care, serving as a trusted, go-to clinical resource and role model for peers within their pediatric domain.
Nomination Instructions: Provide evidence of the nominee’s exceptional clinical acumen. Describe how they approach complex cases with skill that outpaces their career stage, and demonstrate how they serve as a key consultative resource and collaborator for colleagues and trainees.
Joe Snitzer Master Clinician Award for Clinical Expertise
Eligibility: Awarded to a premier clinician (minimum 20 years post-graduate experience) who has achieved clear diagnostic and therapeutic mastery, serving as the definitive regional or national “clinician’s clinician” within their pediatric domain.
Nomination Instructions: Provide narrative or objective evidence of the nominee’s exceptional clinical acumen. Describe how they handle highly complex, atypical cases. Demonstrate how they serve as the ultimate consultative resource for colleagues, including out-of-state referrals, complex institutional multi-disciplinary reviews, or regular invitations to give expert clinical commentary.
Teacher of the Year
Eligibility: Recognizes a faculty member who has made outstanding, immediate contributions to the instruction of Emory pediatric learners, setting an exceptional standard for continuing education and inspiration over the past academic year.
Nomination Instructions: Describe the measurable quality and reach of the nominee’s teaching (e.g., lecture evaluations, rotation feedback, innovative curriculum deployment). Highlight how their teaching style inspires self-directed learning, intellectual curiosity, and personal professional achievement among residents, fellows, and medical students.
Susie Buchter Career Teaching Award
Eligibility: Honors a senior educator (minimum 20 years post-graduate experience) for whom medical education is a career cornerstone. The nominee possesses a legendary reputation for pedagogical excellence, influencing generations of pediatric learners.
Nomination Instructions: Detail the nominee’s distinct ability to adapt to diverse learning styles, simplify intricate pathophysiological concepts, and impart practical bedside wisdom. Provide evidence of their role-modeling, longitudinal impact on trainees’ critical thinking, and their systematic creation of educational frameworks that outlast their direct classroom presence.
Ira Adams-Chapman Advocacy Award
Eligibility: Honors a clinician who embodies the pinnacle of humanism, medical equity, and compassionate care, demonstrating tireless advocacy for vulnerable pediatric patient populations, their families, and the healthcare team.
Nomination Instructions: Provide specific, narrative examples of the nominee’s dedication to patient- and family-centered care across cultural, economic, or language barriers. Detail their structural advocacy efforts—whether establishing local health programs, testifying for child-health policy, or leading institutional change to support families and colleagues during times of acute crisis or medical complexity.
Innovations in Teaching Program Development
Eligibility: Honors an educational architect who has designed, launched, or managed an original, highly effective curriculum, simulation project, or teaching program that modernizes pediatric training.
Nomination Instructions: Describe the pedagogical gaps that existed prior to this intervention and the innovative framework the nominee built to fill it. Provide evaluation metrics, learner performance outcomes, or regional/national adoptions that demonstrate the program’s enduring educational efficacy.
Game Changing Clinical Program Development
Eligibility: Honors an individual who has envisioned and executed a highly disruptive, innovative program or clinical procedure that fundamentally redefines the standard of care or opens entirely new avenues of discovery for children.
Nomination Instructions: Explain the clinical or scientific status quo before this program existed, and how this initiative completely broke that mold. Provide objective metrics of success (e.g., regional patient volume growth, reduced mortality/morbidity, national clinical trial adoption, or landmark cross-disciplinary discovery).
Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award
Eligibility: Recognizes a volunteer or community-based faculty member who selflessly donates their time and expertise to significantly enrich the clinical training, mentorship, and educational missions for Emory pediatric trainees.
Nomination Instructions: Quantify or narratively describe the nominee’s active commitment to Emory learners outside a traditional academic appointment. Highlight specific instances where their community-based perspective, clinical insights, or volunteer teaching have distinctly broadened the educational landscape and breadth of knowledge for our trainees.
Brumley Leadership Award
Eligibility: Awarded to an institutional leader who drives strategic growth and operational excellence in pediatric medicine. This individual shapes a high-performing, inclusive organizational culture and champions visionary initiatives that fundamentally elevate clinical, academic, or operational delivery.
Nomination Instructions: Provide evidence of the nominee’s strategic leadership and organizational impact. Describe how they have successfully advanced program development, expanded clinical footprints, or executed long-term strategic growth. Demonstrate how they deliberately foster a collaborative culture, mentor emerging leaders, and align their team to navigate complex institutional challenges.
Submit a nomination by August 31, 2026!
https://survey.qualtrics.emory.edu/jfe/form/SV_8jHQ4s9Jf0NaEoS (opens in a new tab)