Honors and Grants

Adele Finch, doctoral candidate in neuroscience, has received an American Aging Association Early Career Scholar Award. Scholars receive AGE membership, a travel award, and an opportunity to present their research at the AGE 2026 annual meeting. Finch is studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of brain aging. Her work aims to identify molecular targets that promote hippocampal neurogenesis and mitigate age-associated cognitive decline. She is especially interested in how mitochondrial quality control through mitophagy influences neural stem cell function in the aging brain.

Mollie Ockene, a medical student working in Dr. CC Lee’s lab, won a “best presentation award” for her abstract “Heat Stress and birth outcomes in a pregnancy cohort in rural Amhara, Ethiopia” at the 2026 New England Perinatal Society Meeting March 6-8.

Steven Rougas, emergency medicine and associate dean for medical education, received the 2026 AAMC Northeast Group on Educational Affairs Distinguished Service & Leadership Award. This award honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional and sustained leadership, service, and contribution to the NEGEA over an extended period of time.  

Ryan Van Patten, Psychiatry and Human Behavior received the American Neuropsychiatric Association Sidney R. Baer Jr.  Career Development Award. The award recognizes a neuropsychiatry, behavioral neurology, or neuropsychology advanced trainee or faculty member whose outstanding accomplishments offer promise of a successful career in neuropsychiatry and the clinical neurosciences.  

Rani G. Elwy, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $79,168 for “Expanding Access to Evidence-Based Suicide Risk Assessment and Intervention in a Crisis Stabilization Setting” from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Anne S. Lee, Pediatrics, received $1,358,575 for “Early-Life Microbiome, Autism, and Neurodevelopment: Insights from the Alliance for Maternal and Newborn Health Improvement Cohorts” from Wellcome Leap.

Melanie A. Martinsen, MD/PhD candidate, received $45,000 for “Understanding and enhancing neutrophil progenitor engraftment” from the PhRMA Foundation.

Sana Raoof, Radiation Oncology, received $2,520,524 for “ Modernizing and Expanding Lung Cancer Screening: Planning Phase” from the Susan Wojcicki Foundation.

Alexander G. Raufi, Medicine, received $83,045 for “Early Phase Clinical Cancer Prevention Consortium,” a subaward through the University of Michigan from the National Cancer Institute.  

Jon D. Witman, Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, received $13,598 for “Phase 4 Administration of the Ruth D. Turner Scholarships in Marine Biology for 2026” from the Ruth D. Turner Foundation.