Each year, the Postdoctoral Scholars Awards for Research Excellence are given in recognition of the research promise demonstrated by individual postdoctoral scholars. The awards are open to postdoctoral scholars in all disciplines and are designed to assist postdoctoral scholars in their continued professional development by supporting the recipients in conference travel, purchasing books, lab materials, or engaging in other scholarly activities that directly enhance the individual's professional growth. Each recipient receives a monetary award of a $1,000 along with a plaque. 

For prospective applicants for the 2013 application cycle, please attend the Information Session on Friday, April 12, 2013 from 4:00PM - 5:00PM in G010 Bondurant Hall. You can register for this event here. To view eligibility information and application instructions for the 2012 Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence, please click here.

Congratulations to the 2012 Postdoctoral Scholar Award Recipients!

Back: Tadashi Nakagawa, Dileep Varma, Jason Wolff, Haitao Wen

Front: Vivian Gama, Hsien-Sung Huang, Sandra Albrecht

Missing: Jessica Baker, Mosi Ifatunji, Kathryn Muessig

2012 Award Recipient Information:

Sandra Albrecht is a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center. Her postdoctoral research is focused on weight patterns earlier in the life-course. She is investigating the socio-economic and contextual factors that shape obesity risk in adolescent immigrants as they transition to young adulthood and how these factors may differ from those that impact obesity in U.S-born individuals.

Jessica Baker is a postdoctoral scholar in the Eating Disorders Program in the Department of Psychiatry. Her current projects have focused on delineating the biological factors responsible for the heritability of eating disorder symptoms. She has concentrated on addressing the risk for eating disorder symptoms during periods of reproductive hormone change (e.g., puberty, menopause).

Vivian Gama is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Mohanish Deshmukh in the department of Neuroscience Center. Dr. Gama’s studies showed that in neurons, cytochrome c, a key player in apoptosis, is ubiquitinated by Cul9. Interestingly, the same mechanism of cytochrome c ubiquitination is used by some brain and neuroblastic tumors. Her research is also focused on the regulation of the apoptotic machinery during ES cell differentiation. These studies seek to uncover critical aspects of apoptosis regulation and to reveal key features of stem cell biology.

Hsien-Sung Huang is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Philpot in the department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, School of Medicine. In his research, he identified the first compound unsilencing the paternal allele of the ubiquitin protein ligase E3A (Ube3a). His discovery was published on Nature and highlighted in reviews of Nature, Science, Nature Reviews Neurology, Scientist, NIMH’s Top 10 Research Advances in 2011 and Faculty of 1000.

Mosi Ifatunji is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Sociology and at the Carolina Population Center. His research focuses on the ways in which race and culture structure and reproduce stratification; influence the way people view themselves and others; and inform different social-cognitive frameworks used in the interpretation and explanation of various disparities.

Kathryn Muessig is a postdoctoral research fellow in UNC’s School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease. Her research interests center on the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections through the implementation and evaluation of structural, behavioral and biomedical interventions. Kate is currently working on initiatives to increase HIV and syphilis testing and linkage to care among high-risk populations in both the Southeastern US and urban China.

Tadashi Nakagawa is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Yue Xiong in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. His current project is focused on addressing the roles of cullin 4 type ubiquitin ligases on the human pathogenesis.

Dileep Varma is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Professor Ted Salmon in the Department of Biology. The main focus of the Salmon lab over the years has been to understand the function of the Ndc80 protein complex located at mitotic kinetochores. Dr. Varma has decided to direct his research efforts to identify novel regulators of Ndc80 function at kinetochores of human cells.

Haitao Wen is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Jenny Ting in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine. His current project is focused on addressing the roles of NLR molecule in the innate immunity and inflammation-associated diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Jason Wolff is a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities under the mentorship of Drs. Joseph Piven and James Bodfish. His research focuses on a combined neurobehavioral approach to characterize the emergence of behavioral excesses and deficits in young children with autism or fragile X syndrome. His ultimate aim is to leverage neurobehavioral data to inform targeted early intervention.

Past Recipients:

2011 RECIPIENTS

• Karla Ausderau, Allied Health Sciences
• Silvia Bezer, Department of Chemistry
• Karl D. Castillo, Department of Marine Sciences
• Zuofeng Chen, Department of Chemistry
• Tae-Yeon Eom, Neuroscience Center
• Nuri Ozturk, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Kimberly Powers, Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine
• Laura Widman, HIV/STD Infectious Disease Center
• Nathalie Williams, Carolina Population Center
• Pengcheng Xun, Department of Nutrition

2010 RECIPIENTS

• Cendra Agulhon, Department of Pharmacology
• Christy Avery, Department of Epidemiology
• Janne Boone-Heinonen, Interdisciplinary Obesity Training/Carolina Population Center
• Jacquelyn Bower, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Charles Davis, Department of Art History (Carolina Postdoc for Faculty Diversity)
• Jun Li, Molecular Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy
• Paul Reiter, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Courtney Thaxton, Department of Cell & Molecular Physiology
• Yang Wang, Department of Pharmacology
• Angela Wendel, Department of Nutrition

2009 RECIPIENTS

• Irving Coy Allen, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Sergio Chavez, Carolina Population Center
• Joyee Ghosh, Department of Biostatistics
• Tae-Hong Kang, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Conggang Li, Department of Chemistry
• Liqing Ma, Department of Chemistry
• Aaron Neumann, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
• Nasser Rusan, Biology Department
• Mindy Steiniger, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Kai Ziervogel, Department of Marine Sciences

2008 RECIPIENTS

• Guohua Cao, Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Javier Concepcion, Department of Chemistry
• Molly De Marco, Sheps Center for Health Services Research
• Paul Hoertz, Department of Chemistry
• Xiaoyang Hua, Pulmonary Division of the Department of Medicine & Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology
• Ajit Joglekar, Department of Biology
• Alexey Savelyev, Department of Chemistry
• Naomi Spence, Carolina Population Center
• Jill Weimer, Neuroscience Research Center
• Shuangye Yin, Department of Biochemistry
   

2007 RECIPIENTS 

• James Patrick Cronin, Department of Biological Sciences
• Mathew Dupre, Carolina Population Center
• Matthew Frieman, Hooker Research Center, School of Public Health 
• Hegui Gong, Department of Chemistry
• Laura Halperin, Department of English and Comparative Literature
• Heidi M. Mansour, Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy
• Dan Marston, Department of Biology
• Joanna Poblete-Cross, Department of History
• Rachael Rigby, Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology 
• Leslie Sombers, Department of Chemistry

2006 RECIPIENTS

• Zhongying Chen, Department of Biology
• Shannon Davis, Carolina Population Center
• Nora Franceschini, Department of Epidemiology
• Andrea (Nackley) Neely, School of Dentistry's Center for Neurosensory Disorders
• Thomas Parsons, Department of Neurology
• David Singleton, Department of ESE
• Anthony Yannarell, Institute of Marine Sciences

2005 RECIPIENTS

• Melanie Bishop, Institue of Marine Sciences
• Jennifer DeLuca, Department of Biology
• Feng Ding, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
• Jay Garcia, Carolina Postdoc for Faculty Diversity
• Steven Hitlin, Carolina Population Center
• Karen Kim, Department of Health Behavior & Health Education
• Craig Lee, Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics
• Kristopher Preacher, Department of Psychology
• Eric Wagner, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

2004 RECIPIENTS

• J. Scott Brown, Carolina Population Center
• David Carr, Carolina Population Center
• Daniela Cimini, Department of Biology
• Raymond Coakley, Cystic Fibrosis/Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center
• Timothy Donaldson, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Heidi Gazelle, Center for Developmental Science
• Aiguo Hu, Department of Chemistry
• Robert Maile, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Hengbin Wang, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Francis Willard, Department of Pharmacology

Applying for the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence:

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will begin accepting applications for the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence. The awards, open to postdocs in all disciplines, are designed to recognize research potential and to assist scholars with professional development needs, such as conference travel, written materials, skills workshops, or other activities that directly enhance the individual’s professional development. The awards can fund up to $1000 in professional endeavors and must be expended between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

Eligibility and Instructions

I. The following terms apply to the awards:

1. Applicants must be full-time and fall into one of two Human Resources designations: Postdoctoral Fellow/Trainee (Rank Code 27), or Postdoctoral Research Associate (Rank Code 28).
2. Applicants must have at least one year remaining in their postdoc appointments at the time of application.
3. Funds from the awards may be used for books, travel to a conference, skills workshops, or other resources or activities that directly enhance the postdoc’s professional development. Funds can not be used to purchase computers or electronic equipment.
4. The application deadline date is Friday, May 24, 2013.
    

II. Applications should consist of:

1. A brief cover letter (no more than one page) on departmental letterhead addressed to Dr. Doug Cyr, Chair of the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence Committee. This letter should include a brief introduction to the application and short description of how the funds will be spent.
2. A current curriculum vitae. (To see a sample CV, click here)
3. A research statement (no more than two pages) that describes the applicant’s research accomplishments and future directions. The research statement should be structured similar to a research statement that you would submit when applying for a faculty position. This narrative should broadly discuss the significance of your current work, and your research accomplishments/contributions as a postdoc at UNC. Then provide details of your future research plans. Please note: evaluation of each candidate will be primarily based on one’s accomplishments as a postdoc at UNC.
4. A letter of endorsement from the applicant's mentor. This letter should be emailed to opa@unc.edu directly from the mentor.

All materials should be sent to opa@unc.edu and be received before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 24, 2013. Applications presented after this time will not be considered.

If you have questions, please contact the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at (919) 962-9982.