Gator kudos: Summer 2024
Recent awards and achievements of the UF College of Medicine community
Aug. 15, 2024 — The UF College of Medicine congratulates the following students, trainees, staff, and faculty who have recently been recognized with awards and achievements that honor their hard work and commitment to advancing scientific discovery, improving medical education, and helping patients:
Faculty and staff
- Steven T. DeKosky, MD ’74, the deputy director of the McKnight Brain Institute and the Aerts-Cosper Professor of Alzheimer’s Research, was honored with the Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service by the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment, a 13,000-member global research network led by the Alzheimer’s Association. The award was presented Aug. 1 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia.
- Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery Division Chief and UF Health Abdominal Transplant Center Director Thiago Beduschi, M.D., has been elected to the inaugural board of directors for the Nevada Transplant Institute, which is poised to address critical disparities in end-stage organ failure care across Nevada and develop transplantation services with a team of distinguished professionals at its helm. For many types of organ transplants, Nevadans must travel out of state to receive a transplant not currently offered within the state.
- Peihua Qiu, Ph.D., the dean’s professor and founding chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the UF College of Medicine and College of Public Health and Health Professions, has been awarded the 2024 Shewhart Medal by the American Society for Quality.
- Amy Crisp, the associate director of the Center for Data Solutions at the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville, has been elected an executive committee at-large member of the American Statistical Association’s section on statistical consulting.
- Dimitry Davydow, M.D., M.P.H., vice chair for clinical operations and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry, has been elected to the board of the National Network of Depression Centers.
- Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of anesthesiology and director of UF’s multidisciplinary pain medicine fellowship, has been appointed as an at-large member of the Graduate Medical Education Committee. The GMEC is responsible for the oversight and administration of each of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited programs, which includes ensuring compliance with ACGME institutional, common, and specialty-specific program requirements.
- Arch Mainous, Ph.D., vice chair of research within the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, has been awarded the ABIM Foundation’s John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize for his article, “Recruiting Indigenous Patients into Clinical Trials: A Circle of Trust.” Published in Annals of Family Medicine, the piece introduces a new model designed to enhance collaboration between investigators and the American Indian/Alaska Native community to increase their representation in clinical trials and improve health outcomes, addressing significant underrepresentation and health disparities.
- Thomas Beaver, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, was recently inducted as president of the Florida Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons.
- Nancy Padilla-Coreano, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, has been named a recipient of the 2024 McKnight Scholar Award for young scientists who are in the early stages of establishing their own independent laboratories and research careers and who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience. The $225,000 award, provided by the McKnight Foundation through its McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience over three years, will support Padilla-Coreano’s new project to examine changes at the neurological level when the brain switches from cooperation to competition. The research aims to better understand mechanisms underlying social competency, which is hampered in numerous neuropsychiatric disorders.
- A team of researchers from UF and the University of Pavia in Italy received the Best Poster award at the 22nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, held in July in Salt Lake City. UF team members included Marco Salemi, Ph.D., a professor of experimental pathology in the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine in the College of Medicine; Simone Marini, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health and Health Professions; and Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology and associate dean for artificial intelligence and innovation in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. Their study used AI to predict the emergence of dominant omicron COVID-19 variants with high precision and accuracy, which is crucial for managing future outbreaks and designing new vaccines.
- A team of researchers at the UF Intelligent Clinical Care Center have been honored with an award for pioneering research with HiPerGator, bestowed by UF Information Technology. The center’s co-directors, Azra Bihorac, M.D., the senior associate dean for research at the College of Medicine, and Parisa Rashidi, Ph.D., a professor at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, were awarded, along with Benjamin Shickel, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the College of Medicine.
Learners and trainees
- Department of Anesthesiology resident Eduardo Walker, M.D., has been selected for a resident position on the editorial board of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. As a resident editor, he will be part of the review board for the journal and will help to select, review, and refine manuscripts for publication.
- Medical student Morgan Andreoni has received the 2024 Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute Scholarship from the Florida Academy of Family Physicians. Family Medicine Leads, the American Academy of Family Physicians, or AAFP, Foundation Education Signature Program, focuses on the future of the family medicine specialty by supporting efforts to fill the workforce pathway with the best and the brightest. The program also aims to develop more well-trained family medicine leaders through attendance of the AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students and participation in the Emerging Leader Institute.
- Fourth-year anesthesiology resident Kelley Martin, M.D., received a Poster of Distinction Award at the FSA Annual Meeting in June for her podium session, titled “Impact of enhanced recovery after surgery on outcomes in cystectomy for bladder cancer: a retrospective analysis.”
- Stephan Quintin, a student in the M.D.-Ph.D. Training Program, was awarded the 2024 Fred Q. Vroom, M.D., Neuroscience Endowment Grant from Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.
- Anna Fusco, a student in the M.D.-Ph.D. Training Program, was awarded the 2024 Dr. Frank M. Davis, M.D., Chairman Emeritus Grant from Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.
- Department of Anesthesiology residents Tatsiana Kryvitskaya, M.D., and Olesia Merinova, M.D., recently completed Coaching for Leadership Development, a one-year intensive leadership development program offered for housestaff in the UF College of Medicine. The program is designed to teach fellows and senior residents leadership skills, including communication, team dynamics, and conflict management.
Want to give kudos to someone? Email recent awards and achievements to the UF College of Medicine communications team at med-comms@ufl.edu for recognition in the next quarterly roundup.
