Dr. George Speck, alumnus of SMHS Class of 1941, generously established an annual award in loving memory of his first wife, Doris DeFord Speck. Dr. David Speck, continuing in this tradition on behalf of his parents, will honor a medical student, who, in the words of his father will be: “a wonderful, caring doctor”, and who has demonstrated exceptional aptitude for a dedication to biomedical research. A faculty committee formed by the SMHS Office of Research chooses a 3rd or 4th year medical student who best embodies these characteristics following nominations from the faculty.
This year (2025) we have two outstanding recipients of the Speck student research award. Both recipients have outstanding records of research accomplishment and leadership while medical students at George Washington University.
Yagiz (Matthew) Akiska
Matthew has developed a sustained research program focused on dermatology-related research. His notable accomplishments include taking a leadership role in coordinating the development of international consensus guidelines on the use of Minoxidil for hair loss. He was invited to present this work at the annual American Academy of Dermatology and was first author on the manuscript which was published in JAMA Dermatology. In addition to an extensive list of other peer-reviewed co-author publications and presentations at national meetings, he is first author on a publication related to cutaneious conditions in patients with HIV that is currently under review at JAMA Dermatology. Matthew has also been recognized for his scholarly achievement by election to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, where he serves as vice-president. He has also assumed leadership roles as the founding president of the GW chapter of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In this role he has collaborated with the Learn2Derm organization to develop a curriculum related to skin cancer and alopecia awareness in the DC community.
Kevin Jaatinen
Kevin’s research program has predominantly focused on genomics of cardiovascular disease under the mentorship of Dr. Tim McCaffery. Kevin initially began cardiology-related research while a research associate in Dr. Joseph Woo’s laboratory at Stanford where he was co-author of several manuscripts related to bioengineering of materials for heart bypass grafts. Since arriving at GW, he has worked with Dr. McCaffery to develop robotic tools as well as informatics coding programs to analyze RNA sequence data from patients with coronary artery disease with the aim to identify biomarkers related to disease activity. This work has been very productive as demonstrated by a first author publication in Frontier of Cardiovascular Medicine as well as 5 other co-author publications in this area. Kevin has demonstrated significant leadership in his roles as president of the Cardiology Student Interest Group and provided service as a GW admissions ambassador and participating in DC community outreach providing blood pressure screenings and education.