News and Awards
Nominata Award
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to announce Emily Rex has been selected by the Graduate School Awards Committee to receive the 2026 Nominata Award for outstanding dissertation research, the highest honor bestowed to a Ph.D. student by UT Southwestern Graduate School. A senior Ph.D. student in the Molecular Microbiology Graduate Program, Emily is mentored by Don Gammon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Microbiology. Emily is using pathogen-encoded proteins to identify and characterize novel eukaryotic antiviral defense pathways. She has identified a novel interferon-independent antiviral pathway in mammals called “FEAR” that restricts a wide array of DNA and RNA viruses, including human pathogens. Her work is published in Nature Microbiology and featured in UTSW Newsroom.
The Awards Committee also recognized Dohun Kim, a senior Ph.D. student in the Cancer Biology Graduate Program. Dohun is studying the contribution of NADPH and nucleotide metabolism to cancer development and progression in the lab of Gerta Hoxhaj, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Children’s Medical Center Research Institute. Dohun will receive a Dean's Discretionary Award in recognition of his outstanding research, also featured in UTSW Newsroom and published in high-impact journals, including Nature Cell Biology and Cell.
History
The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) created the Nominata Award in 1980 to stimulate academic excellence and research achievement among the advanced graduate students. The award consisted of a monetary prize and a gift certificate from Majors Scientific Books. Today, the Committee on Graduate School Awards, comprised of graduate school faculty, judges the nominees. The recipient receives a monetary award and the honor of presenting their research to the UT Southwestern community within the forum of the University Lecture Series.
Send an Debbie.Conley@utsouthwestern.edu to learn more about the competition.
Brown-Goldstein Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to announce that Huabin Zhou, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Michael Rosen, Ph.D., in the Department of Biophysics, as the 2025 recipient of the Brown-Goldstein Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research.
Honoring the contributions of Drs. Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein to the training of the next generation of scientists, this award is the highest honor for research accomplishment bestowed by the Graduate School on a postdoctoral research fellow. Chosen by a committee of graduate school faculty members, the winner receives a monetary prize as well as the opportunity to present the University Lecture.
Every human cell faces a remarkable challenge—compacting two meters of DNA into a nucleus just microns wide. How this impressive feat is achieved holds the key to deciphering gene regulation, DNA repair, and the consequences of errors that can lead to disease. How one-dimensional genetic information folds into a three-dimensional structure to enable precise regulation, however, remains largely unknown. Dr. Zhou’s research has focused on uncovering the architecture of chromatin across scales, from nanometers to microns. By harnessing the power of cryo-electron tomography, he is beginning to see the intricate details of chromatin organization with unprecedented clarity, revealing new insights into the molecular determinants of genome structure. This work not only deepens insight into chromatin’s physical structure and properties but also sheds light on how its dynamic organization influences cellular function and impacts the blueprint of life.
In addition, award finalist Shashank Shekhar, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Helmet Kramer, Ph.D., in the Department of Neuroscience, has received a Dean’s Discretionary Award. His research focused on understanding how neuronal structural plasticity is regulated and executed in the Drosophila visual system. Dr. Shekhar has recently transitioned to a faculty position at the Center for Biomedical Research-SGPGI, in Lucknow, India.
Please support our excellent trainees by attending the University Lecture to congratulate them and hear Dr. Zhou’s University Lecture entitled “Illuminating the Hidden Structure of Chromatin” on Wednesday, April 23rd at 4:00 PM in NG3.112.
Send an Debbie.Conley@utsouthwestern.edu to learn more about the competition.
Ida M. Green Award
Please join me in congratulating Savannah Dieste as the winner of the UT Southwestern Medical Foundation’s 2026 Ida M. Green Award.
The Ida M. Green Award was established as a lasting tribute to the late Ida M. Green and to acknowledge the many generous contributions she and her husband, Cecil, have made to our university. The award is given annually to a female graduate student who has demonstrated both scholastic excellence in her field and outstanding citizenship in support of fellow students and advancing the mission and values of UT Southwestern and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. The winner, selected by the Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee (WISMAC), receives a monetary award from the Southwestern Medical Foundation.
The winner of the 2026 Ida M. Green Award is Savannah Dieste, a senior student in the Clinical Psychology Graduate Program. Ms. Dieste has a perfect academic record in coursework. Her dissertation research, conducted under the mentorship of Sunita Stewart, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, involves the study of trauma and family factors in an intensive outpatient program for suicidal adolescents. Supported by the Jerry M. Lewis Mental Health Foundation, her doctoral research has yielded multiple first‑author and co-author publications and national conference presentations.
Ms. Dieste's contributions in support of fellow UT Southwestern graduate students include serving and co-chairing the Clinical Psychology Student Research Committee, serving on the UT Southwestern Student Leadership Council, and mentoring both UT Southwestern trainees and first‑generation undergraduates. She has also advanced the mission and values of UT Southwestern to improve the health of vulnerable populations locally, nationally, and internationally through volunteering with organizations that include Dallas County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and the International Rescue Committee.
The award will be presented at a private ceremony that will include guests of the recipient, graduate school faculty and staff, members of WISMAC, representatives of Southwestern Medical Foundation and of the Cecil Green Estate.
Send an Debbie.Conley@utsouthwestern.edu to learn more about the competition.
William F. and Grace H. Kirkpatrick Award
On behalf of the Graduate School Awards Committee, we are pleased to announce the recipient of the William F. and Grace H. Kirkpatrick Award is Justin Engel.
The William F. and Grace H. Kirkpatrick Award is given annually to the graduate student who submitted the most scientifically meritorious NIH F or equivalent fellowship grant application during the prior academic year, as judged by the Graduate School Awards Committee. The award provides funds to kickstart the proposed research, irrespective of the funding agency’s decision.
Justin Engel, who was selected by the Graduate School Awards Committee to receive the 2025 Nominata Award for outstanding dissertation research. A fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Cancer Biology Graduate Program, Justin is mentored by Peter Ly, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology. Justin is currently interrogating the mechanisms contributing to genomic rearrangements using unbiased genetic approaches. He discovered a paradoxical role of the Fanconi anemia DNA repair pathway in cancer genome evolution via chromothripsis, an extreme form of genome instability identified in 30-50% of cancers (Engel JL et al. 2024. Cell 187:6055).
Send an Debbie.Conley@utsouthwestern.edu to learn more about the competition.