2025 WORLDSymposium™ Young Investigator Awards

Congratulations to the ten individuals selected to receive the 2025 WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Award. The award is a partial scholarship towards attendance at WORLDSymposium. 81 investigators-in-training submitted an application for the award, and the review process was difficult due to the excellent caliber of all the applications. WORLDSymposium would like to congratulate all of the applicants for their hard work. The following individuals will receive the WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Award at the 21st Annual Scientific Meeting on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 08:00 PST.

  • Pratikshya Adhikari, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
  • Aimee Donald, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
  • Allan Feng, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
  • Angelica Maria Herreno Pachon, University of Delaware, Wilmington, United States
  • Andres Felipe Leal, Nemours Children’s Health, Wilmington, United States
  • Connor J. Lewis, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
  • Anna Reinelt, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • Krystyna Noelle Rytel, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
  • Roselena S. Schuh, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • Ewa A. Ziolkowska, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States

About the WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Awards

Each year, trainees and recent doctoral graduates are encouraged to apply for the WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Award. The Young Investigator Award provides a partial scholarship to attend WORLDSymposium 2025. To increase opportunities for newer scientists to present their research, WORLDSymposium is offering ten (10) Young Investigator Awards, open to all abstract categories.

Graduate students and those who are within the first 3 years after completing a graduate degree are eligible. Those who submitted an abstract as the first-author are considered eligible for the award, and are selected by the Program Committee on the basis of the content of the abstract.

The option to be considered for the Young Investigator Award for 2025 is in the WORLDSymposium 2025 Abstract Submission System. When submitting an abstract, applicants will have the ability to check “Yes” to apply for the Young Investigator Award for the abstract being submitted. All eligible applicants will be notified by November 15, 2024 of the status of their application for the award.

The Program Committee will select awardees from the first authors of abstracts submitted by the October 1, 2024 deadline.

The partial scholarship includes:

  • Registration for LIVE, in-person WORLDSymposium 2025, The Patient Voice, and 2025 4th Annual Robert J. Gorlin Symposium
  • 5 nights room and tax at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego (WORLDSymposium special group rate)
  • Access to WORLDSymposium 2025 On Demand sessions
  • All other expenses are the recipient’s responsibility

Recipients must be present LIVE to receive the award. If the recipient is unable to travel to receive the Young Investigator Award an alternate abstract will be selected.

The deadline for submitting an abstract to WORLDSymposium and to be considered for the Young Investigator Award is 17:00 CDT October 1, 2024.

Sign up for updates to be notified when awards are announced.

Past Award Recipients:

2024: Tomas Baldwin, Betul Celik, Esteban Gonzalez, Sarah Hurt, Vi Pham, Luisa Pimentel Vera, Edina Poletto, Irene Serrano Gonzalo, Yuki Shiro, Lena Marie Westermann

2023: Nissrine Ballout, Hannah Best, Chloé Dias, Neil Kasaci, Roselena S. Schuh, David Smerkous, Jason A. Weesner, Anna-Maria Wiesinger, Zhenting Zhang, Xiangli Zhao

2022: Tierra Bobo, Jillian Gallagher, Ik Hui Kho, Oriana Mandolfo, Travis Moore, Sireesha Murala, Marya Sabir, Linda Scheffers, Mahsa Taherzadeh, Fiona Weaver

2021: Su Jin Choi, Jason Glanzman, Tyler Harm, Jane Kinsella, Stephanie Newman, Allegra Quadri, Allen Seylani, Miles Smith, Brianna Yund, Wei Zhu

2020: Joao B. Augusto, Nicholas Bascou, Nuthana Prathivadi Bhayankaram, Poulomee Bose, Eric Joshua Garcia, Mohammad A. Hossain, Jeffrey Y. Huang, Sarah Kim, Chelsie Poffenberger, Michael Przybilla, Weihua Tian

2019: Rhea Ashmead, Hojun Choi, Chloe Christensen, Jenny Do, Areian Eghbali, Eric Joshua Garcia, Francyne Kubaski, Murtaza Nagree, Yanyan Peng, Hiroyuki Yamakawa

2018: Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, Natalia Gomez-Ospina, Zhirui Jiang, Christina Mikulka, Salvatore Molino, Murtaza Nagree, Yanyan Peng, Roselena Schuh, Jenny Serra Vinardell, Nadav Weinstock

2017: Brendan Beaton, Carolina Cardona, Shahzeb Hassan, Shih-hsin Kan, Francyne Kubaski, Reid Martin, Stephanie Newman, Li Ou, Vincent Puy, Dora Lucia Vallejo Ardila

2016: Elma Aflaki, Allison Bradbury, Fu-Pang Chang, Camila de Britto Para de Aragao, Chrissa Dwyer, Arunabha Ghosh, Zhirui Jiang, Mari Mori