Awards and Recognition 2008-09

In Memoriam                                                                                                   

James Dent (1916-2009), a retired University of Virginia biology professor, died Jan. 31 in Charlottesville, VA.  Dent joined the Biology Department in 1949 and was elected professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1986. Read more>>

Graduate Students                                                                                          

Dan Sloan was a recipient of the Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Sciences and Engineering.  This award recognizes excellence in original scholarship by Ph.D. students at the University. In addition, it rewards those students bring recognition to graduate programs at U.Va. through their intellect, dedication, creativity, and passion.

Alex Garcia of the Wormington lab was awarded a Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Dissertation Year Fellowship.  Competition for these fellowships is University-wide and very intense.  Alex also won first place in the 8th Annual Robert J. Huskey Research Exhibition held in mid-March.  Nick Douris of the Carla Green's lab received second place in this exhibition.

Ashley Dai received an International Doctoral Fellowship from the American Association of University Women.  

Jessica Abbate of the Antonovics lab received the Biology Graduate Teaching Award from the Teaching Resource Center this year. One award is issued to the Department of Biology each year for use in honoring a graduate student's overall effectiveness as a teaching assistant, including his/her ability to motivate and inspire students, organize and develop class materials, and contribute positively to a course.  

Pinar Pezuk of the Menaker lab won the Double Hoo Award to support the project "Corticosterone and melatonin: Entertaining Signals for Peripheral Oscillators" with co-research from Laura Wing (undergraduate).

Nick Douris, a graduate student in the Green's lab, was this year's recipient of the Dent Award. The Dent Award was established in 1986 in honor of our colleague and friend, Jim Dent, on the occasion of his retirement from the faculty of the University of Virginia. This award is given to students who demonstrate "interest through dissertation or publication in developmental biology or endocrinology, plus interest and potential in one or both of these fields, and a dedication to the principles of scholarship and personal integrity, which marked the tenure of Mr. Dent."

The Seven Society Fellowship Selection Committee has selected Caroline Flournoy for exemplary teaching. The Seven Society Fellowship is unique among teaching awards at the University in that nominations are made solely by undergraduates, and they may only nominate TAs that they have had in past semesters. The competition for the award was intense, as we received over 80 nominations for 75 teaching assistants this year. Committee members felt that Ms. Flournoy's dossier clearly exhibited the excellence in teaching defined by the Fellowship guidelines: a strong commitment to student learning, exceptional knowledge of and passion for the subject, and a unique creativity in teaching. 

Undergraduate Students                                                                                  

Thirty-nine UVA undergraduates have received Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards this year, which will assist them in conducting independent research during the summer. The Harrison Awards, funded by the family of the late David A. Harrison, III, were first presented in 2000. Harrison Awards winners from the Department of Biology include: 

Jennifer Kefauver, 19, a physics and biology major whose proposed research is focused on "Characterization of Synthetic Virus-based Nanoparticles for Gene Delivery."  

Colin McCrimmon, 20, a chemistry and biology major whose proposed research is focused on "A Multi-Pronged Conputational Approach to Protein Crystallography."

Daniel Tarjan, 20, a biology major whose proposed research is focused on "Transcription Attenuation for Metabolic Control by Engineering Intrinsic Terminators." 

Faculty                                                                                                            

Melissa Henriksen, Assistant Professor of Biology, was awarded funds from the Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust and the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant in support of her lab's research on Epigenetics of a Cancer Stem Cell in Neuroblastoma.

Nature Reviews identified Keith Kozminski’s 1993 scientific paper on intraflagellar transport as one of the top 25 milestones on cytoskeletal research over the last 60 years, being officially designated “Milestone #22.”

Ignacio Provencio, Associate Professor of Biology, was one of 10 faculty recipients of a Mead grant this year. Each year, the Mead Endowment funds faculty members' "Dream Ideas" for continuing the U.Va. tradition of fostering close student-faculty relationships, a tradition exemplified by music professor emeritus Ernest "Boots" Mead, for whom the endowment is named. Dr. Provencio will take student to the prestigious annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience where they will have an opportunity to experience a professional organization in action and mingle with some of the 35,000 scientists who attend.