2025 School of Medicine Research Celebration
2025 School of Medicine Research Celebration
School of Medicine research was celebrated at the 2025 SOM Research Celebration on October 28. Held every fall, this event showcases current medical research and provides opportunities for research faculty and staff to network with each other in a relaxing environment. Awards are also announced during the celebration.
This year’s speakers included Bruce Hall, UC Davis Health Chief Clinical Officer, and researchers Megan Dennis, Brittany Dugger, Peter James, Na’amah Razon, Pranav Shetty, Stephen Henry and Aimiee Moulin.
Research Rock Star Awards
The recipients of the inaugural Research Rock Star awards were announced during the 2025 School of Medicine Research Celebration on October 28. Inspired by the Diamond Doc awards that honor clinical excellence, these awards celebrate excellence in the research mission across various domains, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding contributions and leadership in their respective fields.
These awards reflect the culture of excellence and innovation within School of Medicine research. By honoring exceptional individuals from various fields, we seek to motivate the upcoming generation of researchers and to acknowledge those who expand the frontiers of scientific discovery.
Award Categories
- Trainee Award: Recognizing exceptional research contributions from students, residents, fellows and postdoctoral researchers.
- Mentor Award: Celebrating exemplary mentorship that fosters the growth of future researchers.
- Basic Science Award: For groundbreaking work in fundamental research.
- Clinical/Translational Research Award: Recognizing impactful research bridging the gap between laboratory science and clinical applications.
- Population/Community Research Award: Celebrating innovative research addressing population health or community health needs.
- Research Staff Award: Honoring administrative and technical professionals who support and advance research excellence.
The winner of the Trainee Award is Kevin Chung, a postdoctoral scholar working under the supervision of radiology professor Guobao Wang and Simon Cherry, distinguished professor emeritus in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. He was nominated by Wang and Cherry for his trailblazing work in quantitative molecular imaging, making paradigm-shifting contributions to total-body positron emission tomography.
The winner of the Mentor Award is Aijun Wang, Chancellor's Fellow and Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. Wang received twenty-two individual nominations from undergraduate and graduate students, research staff and fellow faculty. The common theme of the nominations was that Wang’s excellent and inclusive mentorship has a profound impact on rising scientists. Wang is also Co-Director of the Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory and Vice Chair for Translational Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Department of Surgery.
The winner of the Basic Science Award is Associate Professor Megan Dennis from the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. Dennis was nominated by Professor Anna La Torre in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, who noted that Dennis’ landmark research has appeared in numerous highly competitive journals and includes her leadership in the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium that helped deliver the first complete human genome sequence.
The winner of the Clinical/Translational Research Award is Professor Craig McDonald, chair of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and professor of pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation. He was nominated by physical medicine and rehabilitation associate professor Eric Henricson for his work advancing the diagnostics, outcome measures and therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and related neuromuscular diseases.
The winner of the Population/Community Research Award is Professor Elisa Tong, a generalist from the Department of Internal Medicine. Tong was nominated by Associate Adjunct Professor Melanie Dove from the Department of Public Health Sciences. She was nominated for her work as director of the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center, where she leads innovative Population/Community research that has been highly impactful in mitigating tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death and disease.
The winner of the Research Staff Award is Phu Huynh, nominated by Abhijit Chaudhari, professor of radiology and director of the Radiology and Imaging Research Center. Huynh is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist Supervisor who oversees all studies utilizing the world's first total-body PET/CT scanner. Chaudhari notes that his work ensures that innovative investigations using the total-body PET/CT scanner are executed to the highest standard of technical rigor and efficiency.
Research Image Competition Grand Prize
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The grand prize winner of the Research Image Competition was selected and announced during the Research Celebration. The grand prize winner is chosen from among the four images that won the quarterly image research competition that is held throughout the year.
This year’s grand prize winner is Richard Levenson, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine. Levenson received $1500 for his laboratory. Levenson’s image is of loose collagen fibers from a breast tissue specimen mounted on a slide and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin staining (H&E). It was made by polychromatic polscope microscopy (PPM). This microscope uses a special method of combining two beams of white light. Unlike older microscopes that rely on a simpler kind of light interference, this technique creates colorful images even when the sample only slightly changes the light passing through it. Traditional microscopes need much stronger changes in light to produce visible colors, but the PPM can show a full range of colors even with very small changes. Levenson shares the credit for this image with the developer of the PPM, Michael Shribak of the Marine Biological Laboratory.