Two PhD students at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) recently earned predoctoral fellowship awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Stephanie Gomez, working in the lab of Katherine Chiappinelli, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at SMHS; and Julie Ahn, in the lab of Robert Miller, PhD, vice president for research at GW, senior associate dean for research and Vivian Gill Distinguished Research Professor at SMHS, both earned the NIH F31 awards to support their mentored research at GW.
The NIH F31, or the Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award, is earned by scholars based on the quality of their mentored research proposal and career development plan. The purpose of the program, according to the NIH website, is to help develop promising predoctoral students into productive, independent research scientists and enable them to obtain mentored research training while they are conducting dissertation research.
“We are delighted to see a strong increase in the number of students at SMHS who have earned predoctoral fellowships,” said Alison Hall, PhD, associate dean for research workforce development and professor of neurology at SMHS. “This reflects the high quality of our students and their mentored research. Many students successfully adapt their grant-style qualifier exam into applications, following a grant-writing course and coaching.”
Gomez and Ahn join a list of other current SMHS PhD students who have also received federal and non-federal predoctoral awards: John Sulgi Lee, Julie O’Reilly, Aparna Baxi, Katherine Blackmore, Jakob Samsel, Indra Sarabia, Erin Bonner, Amy Hwang, Jessica Schenk, and Jes’Terieuz Howard.
