MCW Armand J. Quick Award for Outstanding Senior Medical Students in Biochemistry

About Dr. Armand J. Quick
The Quick Award

About Dr. Armand J. Quick

Armand J. Quick, MD, PhD, was an internationally recognized physician scientist who contributed substantially to our knowledge about basic mechanisms of blood clotting and techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of hemorrhagic disorders. He is famous for developing a widely used blood clotting assay now known as the Quick Prothrombin Test. Dr. Quick was chair of the MCW Biochemistry Department from 1944 to 1964, during which he continued his research related to blood clotting disorders.

The Quick Award

The Armand J. Quick Award was established by the MCW Biochemistry Department to honor outstanding graduating MD and MD/PhD students at the Medical College of Wisconsin, who have outstanding accomplishments in their course work as well as a biomedically-related research project during medical school to test a hypothesis using biochemical and molecular/cellular approaches and has a continuing interest for biomedical research along their career path. As a tribute to Dr. Quick, these students are encouraged to maintain an ongoing interest in being involved with biochemical/biomedical research in their future careers.

Award recipients are recognized at graduation, and at a special yearly reception given by the Biochemistry Department. Awardees are placed on the Armand J. Quick Award plaque, which is kept in the Biochemistry Department at MCW. They also receive a copy of the Quick Tests book for their personal library, a certificate of achievement and an honorarium of $500 at the Senior Dinner.

The Quick Award application process generally begins in mid-January. If you would like to apply for this award at that time, please contact Michele Jones in the Biochemistry office at mljones@mcw.edu. You'll need to submit the following application information for review by the Armand J. Quick Committee of the Biochemistry Department:

• A current curriculum vitae

• A one-page synopsis of your past research accomplishments and your future plans

• A letter of recommendation (LOR) from your research advisor(s) (The advisor will need to submit the LOR directly to the award committee via the e-mail address below. Any LOR sent by the student will not be accepted.)

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Armand J. Quick Award Current Recipients

Hayley Powers, MD, PhD

Hayley was raised in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, where she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. She entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in 2016.

Hayley joined the laboratory of Dr. Daisy Sahoo in the Department of Biochemistry in 2018. Her dissertation focused on the role of scavenger receptor B1 (SR-B1) in the clearance of cholesterol from the plasma via interaction with high density lipoproteins. She focused on building an expression and purification system of full-length SR-B1 suitable for functional studies and eventual structural determination. She also studied the impact human variants of SR-B1 have on the protein’s function and structure. She was awarded an NIH F30 fellowship and shared her results at national conferences through the American Heart Association and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

After graduation, Hayley will continue her training in the Pediatrics Residency Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania. Hayley will
complete a clinical fellowship after residency training, in addition to continuing research throughout. She looks forward to a long and fulfilling career as a physician scientist.

Kelsey Nolden, MD, PhD

Kelsey grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences in 2016. Kelsey then entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2017.

Kelsey completed her PhD in Dr. Blake Hill’s laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry. Her dissertation research investigated the evolutionarily conserved roles of two
mitochondrial fission proteins, Fis1 and Drp1, and identified structural features that regulate their activity. She also contributed to multiple collaborative projects, including determining the biophysical basis of impaired protein function in pathogenic Drp1 variants, as well as the development of a peptide inhibitor of Fis1. Her graduate research was funded through a CTSI TL1 award and has resulted in numerous publications and presentations at national meetings.

Upon graduation, Kelsey will complete a one-year transitional program at Aurora St. Luke’s Hospital in Milwaukee before beginning her training in the Dermatology Residency Program at the Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Hospital. There, she will complete their Research Fellowship Track where she will receive both clinical and post-doctoral research training. She then plans to complete an additional fellowship in pediatric dermatology, with the ultimate goal of becoming a pediatric dermatologist physician-scientist.

Simon Blaine-Sauer, MD

Simon was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin– Madison, graduating in 2018 with majors in history and
molecular biology. Following graduation, he remained at UW–Madison in the laboratory of Paul F. Lambert, studying HPV-mediated cancers.

Simon began medical school at MCW in 2021, joining the laboratories of Dr. Nikki Johnston and Dr. Joseph E. Kerschner in the departments of Otolaryngology and Microbiology & Immunology. His primary project involved generating new cell culture models for studying otitis media and demonstrating that they retain key characteristics of their tissue of origin and respond to pathogen stimulation. He also studied the role of pepsin in reflux disease, helping show that it mediates inflammatory and pro-carcinogenic cellular changes through the regulated intramembrane proteolysis of E-cadherin, and investigating novel anti-pepsin therapeutics.

He presented his work nationally and internationally and has been honored with multiple presentation awards. His work has been published in the Laryngoscope, Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, and mBio.

After graduation from MCW, Simon will begin residency training in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He plans to pursue an
academic career as a surgeon-scientist. He is forever grateful and indebted to his wonderful mentors at MCW.

2001-Present Recipients

2025 - Hayley Powers, MD, PhD, Kelsey Nolden, MD, PhD, and Simon Blaine-Sauer, MD
2024 - Linda Berg Luecke, MD, PhD
2023 - Acacia Dishman, MD, PhD and Logan Massman, MD
2022 - Casey Vickstrom, MD, PhD and Michael Nordness, MD, PhD
2021 - Andrew Kleist, MD, PhD and Jamie Schnuck, MD, and Michael Olp, MD, PhD
2020 – Daniel Keesler, MD and James Miller, MD, PhD
2019 – Steven M. Blinka, MD, PhD and Nicholas P. Gannon, MD
2018 – Erin M. Kropp, MD, PhD and Zachary R. Shaheen, MD, PhD
2017 – Brennan Decker, MD, PhD and Anna K. Park, MD
2016 – Tarin Bigley, MD, PhD and Jacob M. Wilson, MD
2015 – Erica Schmitt, MD, PhD and Ben Biesterveld, MD
2014 – Tyce Kearl MD, PhD and Wasakorn Kittipongdaja, MD
2013 – Krista Asp, MD
2012 – Jamie R. Privratsky, MD, PhD and Kevin M. Riggle, MD
2011 – Lance M. Relland, MD, PhD and Cheryl J. Maenpaa, MD
2010 – Jonathan M. Skarie, MD, PhD and Corbin D. Sullivan, MD
2009 – Brandon T. Larsen, MD, PhD and Christopher R. Henry, MD
2008 – Andrea B. French, MD
2007 – Sakkapol Ongwijitwat, MD, PhD and Joseph P. Roche, MD
2006 – Sachin Patel, MD, PhD and Michael D. Roseblum, MD, PhD
2005 – Timothy J. Nelson, MD, PhD
2004 – Matthew J. Riese, MD, PhD and Brooke A. King, MD
2003 – Brent L. Fogel, MD, PhD and Andrew E. Trochlell, MD
2002 – Jason A. Jarzembowski, MD, PhD
2001 – Jonathan M. Bock, MD and Anand Krishnan Ganesan, MD, PhD

1982-2000 Recipients

2000 – Stacey A. Strege-Sjoberg, MD, PhD and Robert E. Sonnenburg, MD
1999 – David Potter, MD, PhD
1998 – Heather A. Stanko, MD
1997 – Richard J. Gumina, MD, PhD
1996 – Cathleen M. McCabe, MD
1995 – Grace Levy-Clarke, MD
1994 – Paul W. Hruz, MD, PhD
1993 – Gerald P. Loushin, MD
1992 – David K. Gaffney, MD, PhD
1991 – James P. Thomas, MD, PhD
1990 – John Caton, MD
1989 – Bert G. Tardieu, MD
1988 – Barry J. Roseman, MD
1987 – James P. Witter, MD, PhD
1986 – DuWayne Willett, MD
1985 – Jon R. Resar, MD
1984 – Mark L. Kadden, MD
1983 – Mark I. Freedman, MD
1982 – Carol Anne Popp, MD, PhD