Honors, Awards + Achievements
Janice Krieger, Ph.D.
Janice Krieger, Ph.D., was selected for the International Communication Association Fellows Class of 2023, one of the most prestigious honors in communication research. She is one of 30 notable scholars included into the 2023 ICA Fellows Class.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., received a five-year $3.2 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute, titled “Advancing Precision Lung Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes in Diverse Populations (PLuS2).” PIs are Jiang Bian, Ph.D., Ji-Hyun Jeon, Ph.D., and Michael Gould, M.D.
In addition, she was invited to present a lecture at the LSU Health Shreveport Fiest-Weiller Cancer Center’s Grand Rounds, titled “A Blueprint for the Florida Cancer and Aging Network: Bridging the Age Gap to Transform Prevention and Care.”
Thomas George, M.D., FACP
Thomas George, M.D., FACP, was elected chair of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) Steering Committee. He assumes the position during the upcoming AACI Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in October.
Jonathan D. Licht, M.D.
Jonathan D. Licht, M.D., delivered the keynote address at the “Conquering Chromatin in Childhood Cancers” seminar on June 5 at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH
Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, was elected president of the American Statistical Association for the 2025 term. ASA is the world’s largest community of statisticians, with more than 19,000 members in more than 90 countries.
Debra Lyon, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC, FNAP, FAAN
Debra Lyon, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC, FNAP, FAAN, will serve as interim dean of the UF College of Nursing, effective July 1.
Raymond Mailhot Vega, M.D.
Raymond Mailhot Vega, M.D., received the PTCOG61 2023 Young Investigator Award in recognition of his abstract, titled “Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of hypofractionated consolidative radiotherapy for mediastinal Hodgkin lymphoma,” at this year’s PTCOG 61 Conference in Madrid, Spain.
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D.
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., was selected for the 2024 class of fellows of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program at Drexel University College of Medicine. ELAM chooses women with high leadership potential and provides one year of coaching and training to prepare them for senior academic leadership roles.
In addition, she was appointed associate chair of faculty development in the department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics.
Sherise Rogers, M.D.
Sherise Rogers, M.D., was admitted to the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University. The fellowship is a 22-month, degree-granting program that covers the cost of the MBA for Executives program and gives health care professional the leadership skills and understanding of teams, markets and organizations they need to tackle inequities in the U.S. health care system.
Demetra Christou, Ph.D.
Demetra Christou, Ph.D., received a grant from the National Institute on Aging for a study, titled “High Intensity Interval Training: Optimizing Exercise Therapy to Mitigate Cardiovascular Disease Risk Following Breast Cancer Chemotherapy.”
Carolyn Tucker, Ph.D.
Carolyn Tucker, Ph.D., gave a presentation, titled “Advocating for CHWs as Research Partners,” with Kirsten Klein at the 2023 Florida Community Health Worker (CHW) Summit sponsored by the Florida Department of Health in Orlando on June 22.
She also gave a presentation, titled “The Impact of Perceived Racism by Doctors on Older Black Adults’ Decisions Regarding Use of Telehealth and Choice of Doctor,” at the Town Hall Meeting, titled “Let’s Discuss What is Needed to Improve Health Care for Black Adults” in Jacksonville on May 25. In addition, she gave a presentation, titled “Patient-Centered Culturally Sensitive Health Care to Reduce Obesity among Black Women Patients at Primary Care Clinics,” at the meeting.
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC, is serving on the planning committee for the AACR Cancer Health Disparities 2023 Conference.
Thomas Angelini, Ph.D.
Thomas Angelini, Ph.D., received a $2 million National Science Foundation Award, titled “IntBio: Functional genomic dissection of biomineralization at multiple scales using a new marine model,” in collaboration with the Whitney lab. In addition, he was promoted to full professor.
Mei He, Ph.D., Yan Gong, Ph.D., and Guangrong Zheng, Ph.D.
Several members of the UF College of Pharmacy were recognized with tenure an/or promotion. Mei He, Ph.D., was approved for tenure and promoted to associate professor; Yan Gong, Ph.D., was approved for tenure; and Guangrong Zheng, Ph.D., was promoted to professor.
Paul Crispen, M.D., and Padraic O’Malley, M.D.
Paul Crispen, M.D., was promoted to full professor and Padraic O’Malley, M.D., was promoted to associate professor in the department of urology.
Maria Mamalui, Ph.D., Raymond B. Mailhot Vega, M.D., Anamaria R. Yeung, M.D., and Kate Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D.
Several faculty members in the department of radiation oncology were promoted. Maria Mamalui, Ph.D., was promoted to clinical associate professor; Raymond B. Mailhot Vega, M.D., was promoted to clinical associate professor; Anamaria R. Yeung, M.D., was promoted to clinical professor; and Kate Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to clinical associate professor.
Song Han, M.D., Ph.D., Christina Shaw, Ph.D., and Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D.
Song Han, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to associate scientist; Christina Shaw, M.D., was promoted to clinical professor; and Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to professor in the department of surgery.
Matthew Pipkin, Ph.D., and Laura Solt, Ph.D.
Matthew Pipkin, Ph.D., and Laura Solt, Ph.D., were promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Miriam Ezenwa, Ph.D., M.S.N., R.N., FAAN
Miriam Ezenwa, Ph.D., M.S.N., R.N., FAAN, was promoted to professor with tenure in the UF College of Nursing.
John Allen, Pharm.D.
John Allen, Pharm.D., was selected for the prestigious American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s, or ACCP, 2023-24 Academic Leadership Fellows Program. Allen joins AACP’s 20th cohort in the Academic Leadership Program. The 35 individuals selected represent academic pharmacy’s brightest leaders and will begin the yearlong program in September. AACP uses an in-depth curriculum aimed at the development of self through the study of leadership theory, enhancement of personal skills and guidance from demonstrated leaders.
Wesley Bolch, Ph.D.
Wesley Bolch, Ph.D., was selected to serve as chair of the Radiation Therapeutics & Biology Study Section in the Biology/Development/Aging Integrated Review Group for the Center for Scientific Review with the National Institutes of Health.
Kate Carroll, Ph.D.
Kate Carroll, Ph.D., received a grant from the National Science Foundation for a project, titled “The Bioorganic Chemistry of Electrophilic Sulfur in Cysteine Post-Translational Modifications.”
Piyush Jain, Ph.D.
Piyush Jain, Ph.D., received the UF Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors for 2023. Graduate student Santosh Rananaware won the Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award at the college level. In addition, Jain’s first graduate student, Long Nguyen, successfully defended and won a highly competitive Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at Princeton.
Two of Jain’s undergraduate students, Grace Shoemaker and Dylan Carman, won the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Liang Zhou, M.D., Ph.D.
Liang Zhou, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship for 2023-26. He also received a $550,220 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services for a project, titled “Regulation of Gut Innate Lymphoid Cells by Ahr.”
Matthew Sarkisian, Ph.D.
Matthew Sarkisian, Ph.D., received an R21 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a project, titled “Regulation of the Tumor Immune Cell Landscape by Glioblastoma Cells.”
John Ligon, M.D.
John Ligon, M.D., received a $400,000 grant from the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation for a study, titled “Defining the Tumor Intrinsic and Regional Landscape of the Therapeutic RNA-Nanoparticle Transduction and Immune Activation Following Intravenous Administration in Diffuse Pontine Glioma.”
He also received a grant from Children’s Oncology Group/Children’s Cancer Research Fund for a study, titled “The Impact of Race/Ethnicity on Immunotherapy Outcomes in Children/AYA Patients with Cancer.”
In addition, he received a DIPG/DMG Research Funding Alliance Research grant for a study, titled “Studying the Impact of RNA-Nanoparticle Vaccine on Immune Response to DIPG/AYA Patients with Cancer.”
He also gave a presentation on June 23 at MIB Agents FACTOR 2023 in Atlanta, titled “Outsmarting Osteosarcoma 2022 Funded Research Update: Using RNA-nanoparticle vaccines to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of canine osteosarcoma.” He gave a translation and clinical oncology seminar at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center on June 1.
He is also serving on the Cellular Therapy for Solid Tumors State of the Science Symposium Committee of the Blood & Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network.
Kendall Nettles, Ph.D.
Kendall Nettles, Ph.D., received a five-year R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “Mechanisms of Estrogen Receptor Ligand Signaling.”
Sergei Kusmartsev, Ph.D.
Sergei Kusmartsev, Ph.D., gave an invited presentation at the International Society for Hyaluronan Sciences conference held June 4-8 in Portland, Oregon.
Katelyn Bruno, Ph.D., FHFSA
Katelyn Bruno, Ph.D., FHFSA, received a grant from the American Heart Association for a study, titled “Sex difference in novel viral myocarditis therapeutic: adipose-derived stem cell secretome.”
Xin Tang, Ph.D.
Xin Tang, Ph.D., received a National Science Foundation grant for a study, titled “Creating an All-optical, Mechanobiology-guided, and Machine-learning-powered High-throughput Framework to Elucidate Neural Dynamics.”
Alberto Perez, Ph.D.
Alberto Perez, Ph.D., received a four-year $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study how bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) proteins may play a role in treating cancer.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D., received a two-year $392,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to study how to enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy to treat glioblastoma.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D., was appointed associate chair for education in the department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., was appointed division director of health outcomes and implementation science in the department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics.
Jiang Bian, Ph.D.
Jiang Bian, Ph.D., was appointed division director of biomedical informatics and data science in the department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics.
Todd Manini, Ph.D.
Todd Manini, Ph.D., was appointed division director of clinical and population health integration in the department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics.