Gator kudos: Winter 2023

Recent awards and achievements of the UF College of Medicine community

  • The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected Czerne Reid, Ph.D., a senior lecturer in psychiatry and affiliate faculty in journalism, and Maurice Swanson, Ph.D., a professor in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology and associate program director of the UF Center for NeuroGenetics, to its newest class. Reid and Swanson join 17 other faculty members in UF’s class of inductees, breaking previous records for the number of UF faculty awarded in a single year. The honor is among the most distinctive in academia and recognizes extraordinary impact and achievement across disciplines.

  • Two department of psychiatry faculty, Mariam Rahmani, M.D., an associate professor, and Ana Turner, M.D., an assistant professor, have been elected as distinguished fellows of the American Psychiatric Association, or APA. This is the highest honor bestowed upon members by the APA and is awarded to outstanding psychiatrists who have made significant contributions to the profession in at least five of the following areas: administration, teaching, scientific and scholarly publications, volunteering in mental health and medical activities of social significance, community involvement and clinical excellence.

  • Terrie Vasilopoulos, Ph.D., an associate professor of anesthesiology and orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, has been named a statistical editor for the Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. In this role, Vasilopoulos will review submitted papers for statistical quality as well as organize, write and solicit editorials on statistical topics of interest to anesthesiology researchers.

  • Urology resident Jordan Smith, M.D., was awarded “Best Pediatric Podium” at the seventh Annual North American Urology Symposium for her presentation, “Pediatric Single Port Robotic Pyeloplasty Compared to Open and Multiport Cohorts.” Smith will also present her findings as a poster abstract at the upcoming annual American Urological Association meeting in Chicago.

  • At the recent AI2Heal Datathon event, co-hosted by the College of Medicine Office of Research and UF Intelligent Critical Care Center, five College of Medicine researchers and their teams each received $20,000 or $15,000 catalysts grants, meant to kick-start new research collaborations in high-impact, emerging fields that have potential for external funding, to help them develop an extramural proposal. Yong He, Ph.D., a research assistant scientist with the department of surgery, and his team; Mohammad Al-Ani, M.D., a clinical assistant professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine, and his team; Russell Terry, M.D., an assistant professor in the department of urology, and his team; Jeremy Balch, M.D., a resident in the department of surgery, and his team; and Kiley Graim, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of computer and information science and engineering at the College of Engineering, and her team, earned the awards.

  • Six predoctoral candidates received awards during the 2023 UF Health Cancer Center Research Day: Diliara Bagautdinova, Miles Cameron, Minh-Chau Le, Nam Nguyen, Sadeem Qdaisat and Gregory Takacs. These awards recognize and support outstanding predoctoral candidates who are conducting innovative cancer research.