Honors and Grants

Neishay Ayub, Neurology, Epilepsy Fellowship Program Director, received the Mentorship Award in Diversity and Equity in Medicine from The Warren Alpert Medical School. The award recognizes a faculty member at the medical school for their extraordinary dedication to mentoring medical students and trainees in the promotion of diversity, inclusion, and health equity.

Stephanie Brule, Obstetrics and Gynecology, was presented with the Best ONTPD Neonatology Fellowship Research Award at the 2025 Pediatric Academic Society annual meeting.

Erica Chung, Pediatrics, received the Senior Citation from the MD Class of 2025, the highest award presented by the graduating class to a member of the faculty. 

Alvin Huang, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry, and Ryan O’Rourke, postdoctoral research associate, CEO and co-founder, are National Institute on Aging Start-Up Challenge Finalists for “Acre Therapeutics: Antisense oligonucleotide therapy designed to restore secretory autophagy for tau pathology in Alzheimer’s and related tauopathies.” The 21 finalists represent a multidisciplinary group of researchers and entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas for science-driven technologies and products that have the potential to advance the fields of aging and age-related diseases.  

Adam Lewkowitz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the Early Career Research Achievement Award for Hospital-Based Research Faculty from Brown University’s Division of Research.   

Harlan Rich, Medicine, received the Milton Hamolsky Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the American College of Physicians. This award is a College-authorized laureate award and is given to a senior physician “in recognition of academic, clinical, research and administrative excellence to a physician who epitomizes the attributes of the award's namesake, Dr. Milton Hamolsky.”

Julia Shinnick, Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the 2025 Rising Star Award from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons at the 51st Annual Scientific Meeting. 

Vivian Sung, Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the President’s Award for Dedicated Service from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons. 

Federica Accornero, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry, received $110,559 for “Role of cardiac m6A methyltransferases” from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).             

Madeline Benz, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $140,000 for “Development of an Intervention to Reduce Overdose Risk in Dual Diagnosis Patients” from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Benz also received $50,000 for “Overdose prevention for high-risk patients receiving medications for opioid use disorder” from Advance Clinical and Translational Research, Rhode Island (A-CTR), supported by the IDeA-CTR grant (U54GM115677).

Faith Chen, undergraduate student, received $4,000 for "Sex-Specific Differences in Profound Autism Associated with ASH1L Pathogenic Variants" from the Autism Science Foundation.

Vivian G. Cheung, MCB, received $500,000 for "Targeting AANCR and APOE4: A Novel RNA-Based Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease" from the Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Emilia Huerta-Sanchez, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, received $19,500 for “SMBE IDEA - ScienceWise Podcast” from the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Stephanie R. Jones, Neuroscience, received $4,959 for “C0-Overall: Fetal Ethanol-induced behavior deficits: Mechanisms, diagnosis and Intervention” from the University of New Mexico through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Ana Rabasco, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $140,000 for “Reducing Stigma - A Treatment for Early Psychosis to Prevent Suicide (RESTEPS),” an Early Career Researcher Innovation Grant from the  American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Seneca J. Scott, graduate student in neuroscience, received $146,922 for “Testing of the VTA - EC Ca2+ - BBB Hypothesis” from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Mentors are Diane Lipscombe and Christopher Moore.       

Gregorio Valdez, MCB, received $957,000 for Optimizing Clopidogrel to treat ALS from the U.S. Department of Defense.