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Office of Postdoctoral Education

Medical College of Wisconsin Office of Postdoctoral Education Annual Awards

Excellence in Science Award

The Office of Postdoctoral Education and the Postdoctoral Advisory Committee initiated this award in 2010. The award recipient will receive recognition and a $1,000 prize (to spend at their discretion). 

Applications open: 01/09/2025
Due: 01/21/2025

Application (DOCX)

Past Recipients of the Excellence in Science Award

2023 – Daniel Sprague
2022 – Emily Welby
2021 – Jennifer Stancill
2020 – Christine Klemens
2019 – Chen Chen
2018 – Katelyn Sadler
2017 – Daniel Bretl
2016 – Pui Kei Wu
2015 – Louise Evans
2014 – Jeremy Wood
2013 – Brian Hoffman

Professional Development Award

Awards are given out twice a year in the spring and fall. Award amount and number of recipients are contingent on availability of funds. Awardees will be determined through a peer review process.

Who should apply? Those who have done the below, or plan to soon:

  • Attend a virtual conference (for science, networking or career development)
  • Take an on-line course (for science or career or professional development)
  • Learn a new technique, skill, or line of research

To apply, fill out the application and submit a letter of support from your PI/mentor to postdoc@mcw.edu.

Applications open: 03/06/2025
Applications due: 03/21/2025

Application (PDF)

Past Recipients of the Professional Development Award

Spring 2024

  • Iwalola Awoyinka, Cancer Center
  • Devanshi Dave, Biomedical Engineering
  • Pelin Ergun, Otolaryngology
  • Subhajit Giri, Pathology
  • Sajjad Khan, Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy
  • Behshid Ghadrdoost Nakhchi, Medicine
  • Hortense Triniac, Medicine

Fall 2023

  • Raudah Yunus, Emergency Medicine
  • Karthikeyan Thirugnanam, Pediatrics
  • Guru Prasad Sharma, Radiation Oncology
  • Nikola Sekulovski, Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy
  • Maha Paracha, Neurosurgery
  • Daria Golosova, Physiology
  • Michael Flinn, Physiology
  • Amirala Bakhshiannik, Physiology

Spring 2023

  • Sonam Mittal, Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Emily Welby, CBNA
  • Daniel Sprague, CBNA
  • Anjali Geethadevi, Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Lana Mucalo, Pediatrics
  • Gaurav Kumar, Physiology
  • Satoshi Shimada, Physiology

Fall 2022

  • Jennifer Stancill, Biochemistry
  • Joshua Nord, Biochemistry
  • Karthikeyan Thirugnanam, Pediatrics
  • Milad Rouhimoghadam, Versiti
  • Nikola Sekulovski, CBNA
  • Ratnashree Biswas, Versiti
  • Xinlei Li, Medicine

Previous Award Winners (PDF)

Edward J. Lennon MD Outstanding Woman Postdoctoral Researcher Award

One woman postdoc, per year, is recognized as the recipient of this award and receives recognition plus a monetary award of $1000 (to be spent on research).

Applications Open: 11/6
Applications Due: 11/25 by 5:00 PM (CST)

Application: Edward J. Lennon, MD Outstanding Woman Postdoctoral Researcher Award Application (PDF)

Past recipients of the Edward J. Lennon, MD Outstanding Woman Postdoctoral Researcher Award

2023 – Emily Welby | Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy
2022 – Xinrui (Sarea) Wang
2021 – Barbara Palkovic | Anesthesiology
2020 – Jennifer Stancill | Department of Biochemistry
2019 – Katelyn Sadler | Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy; Neurosciences
2018 – Megan Slaker | Pharmacology and Toxicology
2017 – Pan Pan | Medicine
2017 – Karima Ait-Aissa | Medicine
2016 – Stephanie Cossette | Department of Pediatrics, Neonatology
2016 – Justine Abais-Battad | Department of Physiology
2015 – Sushma Kommineni | Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
2014 – Dasha Ilatovskaya, PhD | Department of Physiology
2013 – Savitha Sethumadhavan, PhD | Department of Biophysics
2012 – Anne Diers-Dranka, PhD | Department of Biophysics
2011 – Alison Kriegel, PhD | Department of Physiology

Postdoctoral Paper of the Season

This is a new award created in 2021, and scored based on the significance of the finding to the field, on the contribution of the postdoc to the publication and on the quality of the manuscript. Winners will have recognition and prizes.

Applications Open: 03/06/2025
Applications Due: 03/21/2025

Application (DOCX)

Past Recipients of the Paper of the Season Award

Spring 2024 - Tarun Pant - "Monocytes in type 1 diabetes families exhibit high cytolytic activity and subset abundances that correlate with clinical progression"
Tarun Pant, Chien-Wei Lin, Amina Bedrat, Shuang Jia, Mark F. Roethle, Nathan A. Truchan1, Ashley E. Ciecko, Yi-Guang Chen, Martin J. Hessner
Journal: Science Advances

Fall 2023 - Daniel Sprague - “Target-based discovery of a broad spectrum flukicide”
Daniel J Sprague, Sang-Kyu Park, Svenja Gramberg, Lisa Bauer, Claudia M Rohr, Evgeny G Chulkov, Emery Smith, Louis Scampavia, Timothy P Spicer, Simone Haeberlein, Jonathan S Marchant
Journal: PubMed

Spring 2023 - Michael Flinn - "Myofibroblast Ccn3 is regulated by Yap and Wwtr1 and contributes to adverse cardiac outcomes"
Michael A. Flinn, Santiago Alvarez-Argote, Makenna C. Knas, Victor Alencar Almeida, Samantha J. Paddock, Xiaoxu Zhou, Tyler Buddell, Ayana Jamal, Reiauna Taylor, Pengyuan Liu, Jenny Drnevich, Michaela Patterson, Brian A. Link, Caitlin C. O’Meara
Journal: Frontiers

Fall 2022 - Gennadiy Gurariy - "Neuroimaging evidence for the direct role of auditory scene analysis in object perception"
Gennadiy Gurariy, Richard Randall, Adam S Greenberg
Journal: Cerebral Cortex

Spring 2022 - Ankan Gupta “Cilia proteins are biomarkers of altered flow in the vasculature”
Ankan Gupta, Karthikeyan Thirugnanam, Madhan Thamilarasan, Ashraf M. Mohieldin, Hadeel T. Zedan, Shubhangi Prabhudesai, Meghan R. Griffin, Andrew D. Spearman, Amy Pan, Sean P. Palecek, Huseyin C. Yalcin,5 Surya M. Nauli, Kevin R. Rarick, Rahima Zennadi, and Ramani Ramchandran
Journal: JCI Insight

2021 -  Punashi Dutta - “KPT-330 Prevents Aortic Valve Calcification via a Novel C/EBPβ Signaling Pathway”
Punashi Dutta, Karthik M. Kodigepalli, Stephanie LaHaye, J. Will Thompson, Sarah Rains, Casey Nagel, Kaitlyn Thatcher, Robert B. Hinton, Joy Lincoln
Journal: Circulation Research

Postdoctoral Mentor of the Year

This award is sponsored by the MCW Office of Postdoctoral Education and is given to MCW Faculty who demonstrate excellence in their mentorship of MCW postdocs. Postdocs may nominate their own primary faculty mentor using this application form. Applications will be carefully considered by the MCW Postdoctoral Association Awards Committee, and a winner determined.

Applications for the 2023 Award are due June 7 at noon.

Download 2023 application (DOCX).

Past Recipients of Postdoctoral Mentor of the Year Award

2023 - Aasim Padela, MD, MSc, FACEP, Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Scholarship | Emergency Medicine
2022 - Jonathan S. Marchant, MA, PhD, Marcus Professor & Chair | Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy
2021 - Alison Kriegel, PhD, Associate Professor | Physiology

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