Three students who are pursuing PhDs in the life sciences at HMS have been selected by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to receive Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study, a program aimed at increasing diversity in the scientific workforce.
In addition to receiving support for advanced studies, Gilliam Fellows also attend meetings with HHMI scientists and receive intensive mentoring from their advisors.
The 2016 Gilliam fellows and advisors from HMS are the following:
- Kristine Lyon, whose mentor is Susan Dymecki, professor of genetics and director of Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD Program
- Jennifer Pena, whose mentor is Simon Dove, associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital
- Ivan Santiago, whose mentor is Matthew Pecot, assistant professor of neurobiology
Thirty-four students were selected this year from among 142 applicants for the fellowship, which provide full support to promising doctoral students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. Each fellow will receive an annual award totaling $46,000 for up to three years.
In addition to providing financial support for the fellows, the Gilliam Fellows program also provides support to enable faculty mentors to build effective mentoring skills. The program engages the fellows’ thesis advisers in professional development activities, including working with trainees from different cultural backgrounds and joining their students at the annual Gilliam Fellows meeting at HHMI.
David Roberts, HMS dean for external education, and Elsie Taveras, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, were among 21 health care leaders named to the second class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship, which is designed to strengthen the leadership of innovators across the U.S. health care ecosystem and challenge them to create new approaches that will improve the health and well-being of all Americans.
As the inaugural dean for external education, Roberts is developing and implementing innovative educational programs for learners around the globe by leveraging new technologies and advances in learning the sciences.
Roberts and his team have created an online learning platform called HMX, and have begun to transition Harvard Health Publications to digital and multimedia publishing. They have also merged and expanded HMS global and continuing medical education programs. Additionally, Roberts created a novel executive education program for business leaders to learn about the delivery of modern health care.
Taveras, who is also the chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and director of Pediatric Population Health Management program at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, founded and directed childhood obesity clinical programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital.
Taveras currently leads a research team dedicated to studying obesity, including epidemiological analyses of risk factors for childhood obesity across the life course, with an emphasis on racial/ethnic disparities, and translating epidemiological evidence into clinical and public health innovations to prevent and manage obesity and obesity-related conditions.
The Health Innovator Fellows will spend four weeks over the course of two years exploring their leadership, core values, desired legacies and vision for the health care system. Each fellow commits to launching a leadership venture that will be individually challenging and will have a positive impact on health care in the U.S.
The Aspen Institute launched the Fellowship in 2015 in partnership with the Greenville Health System in South Carolina. The Health Innovator Fellows join more than 2,200 entrepreneurial leaders from 49 countries to become members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Diane Mathis, the HMS Morton Grove-Rasmussen Professor of Immunohematology, was selected to receive the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 2017 Excellence in Science Award for her outstanding scientific research contributions, service to the professional community and mentoring activities.
Mathis, who is also an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, is internationally recognized for her contributions to understanding the molecular mechanisms of immunological tolerance, pathogenic processes in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and mechanisms of immune regulation.
The Excellence in Science Award recognizes women whose outstanding career achievements in biological science have contributed significantly to further our understanding of a particular discipline by excellence in research. The award carries with it an unrestricted research grant of $10,000.
James Gusella, the HMS Bullard Professor of Neurogenetics in the Department of Genetics, has been named by the American Society of Human Genetics as the 2016 recipient of the annual William Allan Award. He will receive the award, which includes an engraved medal and a $25,000 prize, during the organization’s annual meeting in October in Vancouver, British Columbia. Gusella will also present the William Allan Award address at the meeting.
The Allan Award recognizes a scientist for substantial and far-reaching scientific contributions to human genetics. Gusella pioneered the “genetic research cycle” paradigm to conceptualize genetic research from basic science to translation into diagnostics, treatments and prevention strategies.
Gusella and his colleagues have mapped and identified the genes associated with many neurological conditions, including Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease and neurofibromatosis, as well as neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.
Gusella has led numerous national and international research consortia, with broad impact on human disease. He is research staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
Two HMS researchers have received awards from Research to Prevent Blindness.
Lotfi Merabet, HMS associate professor of ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, has been named the first recipient of the Research to Prevent Blindness/Lions Clubs International Foundation Low Vision Research Award.
The award, which funds research on how the brain adapts to degraded visual input, will allow Merabet to combine behavioral and neuroimaging approaches to characterize inadequate brain development in an understudied population of children with cortical visual impairment. A clinician-neuroscientist with over 20 years’ experience, Merabet specializes in the investigation of neuroplasticity associated with adaptation to visual impairment and blindness.
Jennifer Sun, HMS associate professor of ophthalmology and chief of the Center for Clinical Eye Research and Trials at Joslin Diabetes Center, received a 2016 Physician-Scientist Award from Research to Prevent Blindness. The award promotes the clinical or basic science research of clinicians who are nationally recognized in their subspecialty.
