WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Awards Announced

Congratulations to the ten individuals selected to receive the 20th Annual 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 20th Annual Scientific Meeting on Tuesday, February 6, at 7:30 AM PST:

  • Tomas Baldwin, University College London, London, United Kingdom
  • Betul Celik, University of Delaware, Wilmington, DE, United States
  • Esteban Gonzalez, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • Sarah Hurt, Washington University St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States
  • Vi Pham, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
  • Luisa Pimentel Vera, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
  • Edina Poletto, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
  • Irene Serrano Gonzalo, Fundación Española Para el Estudio y Terapéutica de la Enfermedad de Gaucher y Otras Lisosomales, Zaragoza, Spain
  • Yuki Shiro, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan
  • Lena Marie Westermann, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

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 2024. 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 were within the first 3 years after completing a graduate degree were eligible. Those who submitted an abstract as the first-author were considered eligible for the award, and were 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 2024 is in the WORLDSymposium 2024 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.

The Program Committee will select awardees from the first authors of abstracts submitted by the October 2, 2023 deadline.

The partial scholarship includes:

  • Registration for LIVE, in-person WORLDSymposium 2024, The Patient Voice: Is Anyone Listening, and 2024 3rd Annual Robert J. Gorlin Symposium
  • 5 nights room and tax at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego (WORLDSymposium special group rate)
  • Access to WORLDSymposium 2024 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 was 10:00 AM CDT October 2, 2023.

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

Past Award Recipients:

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