Three researchers from the Department of Cell Biology received prestigious researcher awards in 2022:
Dr. Dorothy Lerit is the recipient of the Günter Blobel Early Career Award from the American Society for Cell Biology.
This award is given to an outstanding life scientist who has served as an independent investigator for no more than seven years.
Jill J. Ward, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, has been selected by the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) as the recipient of the 2022 R.R. Bensley Award in Cell Biology for her important contributions to the neurosciences. Each year, the Bensley award honors a cell biologist who has completed his or her highest degree in the past ten years, advanced the field of anatomy, and published papers that substantially impacted his or her field. Dr. Ward received a $2,000 honorarium and complimentary travel to the AAA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in conjunction with Experimental Biology 2022 where she presented the R.R. Bensley Award Lecture in the Young Investigator Award Symposium. The award was first given in 1979 and recognizes a cell biologist who has made a distinguished contribution to the advancement of anatomy through discovery, ingenuity, and publications in the field of cell biology. Past winners include: John Heuser, Elaine Fuchs, Tim Mitchison, and Ron Vale. Dr. Ward's current research focuses on sympathetic modulation of skeletal muscle metabolic health and function as well as sympathetic axon plasticity and regeneration.
Photo left to right: Kathy Jones and Jill Ward
Dr. Nisha Raj, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Bassell Lab, received the 2022 NARSAD Junior Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation is the largest non-government, donor-supported organization that distributes funds for psychiatric brain and behavior disorder research. The Foundation’s NARSAD Young Investigator Grant (YI) program offers up to two years of funding to enable promising investigators to either extend their research fellowship training or to begin careers as independent research faculty.