Announcing the ASCI PSSF Fellowship Program

The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) is proud to announce its partnership with the Physician Scientist Support Foundation (PSSF), and the establishment of the ASCI PSSF Fellowship Program. 

Recognizing the shared goal to bolster and sustain the pipeline of scholars entering the workforce, the ASCI has assumed the PSSF, positioning itself to expand innovative training pathways for emerging physician-scientists.

The newly established ASCI PSSF Fellowship Program – formerly the PSSF Medical Student Research Fellowship (MSRF) – will continue to provide single-degree medical students with a one-year, rigorous training experience in biomedical research, guided by dedicated mentors. An eligible candidate must be a single-degree medical student interested in a dual career in research and patient care. They may not be enrolled in a combined degree program.

The ASCI PSSF Fellowship includes:

  • A $42,000 stipend and an additional allowance of $8,000 for health insurance and travel expenses.
  • Complimentary registration and inclusive program access to the AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting.
  • 1:1 quarterly conversations with PSSF Advisory Committee mentors.
  • Access to ASCI’s virtual community programming including bi-monthly scientific seminars led by ASCI members and additional networking, enrichment, and career development activities.

A key outcome of the merger was the establishment of the ASCI’s PSSF Advisory Committee, now comprising former PSSF’s founders and Board members. Guided by the ASCI Council, this group will remain dedicated to physician-scientist research as ambassadors of the ASCI PSSF Fellowship and mentors to its recipients. The Advisory Committee members are:

For information or questions, please contact us at programs@the-asci.org.

Nominations open for the 2025 Seldin~Smith Award for Pioneering Research

The ASCI is pleased to call for nominations for the 2025 Seldin~Smith Award for Pioneering Research. The annual award, accompanied by an unrestricted $30,000 grant to advance academic efforts, honors an early-career physician-scientist who has demonstrated exceptional creativity and accomplishments in biomedical research (see past recipients).

The deadline for receipt of nominations is Wednesday, November 13, at 11:59 pm Eastern.

The nominee:

  • must be an MD (or the equivalent);
  • must be more than 2 years but not more than 6 years from first faculty (or the equivalent) appointment as of April 2025; and
  • spends substantial time in research while providing direct patient care.

A nomination must be started by the nominator, who then notifies the nominee to complete her/his part of the nomination. The nominee identifies the supporter of the nomination and notifies that person through the submission site to complete her/his support form. Note: The nominee may not be a past recipient of the Foundation for the NIH’s Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists.

Nominations will be screened to ensure they are complete and fit the nomination criteria. The Seldin~Smith Award Selection Committee reviews nominations and provides recommendations to the Seldin~Smith Award Advisory Committee to determine the recipient.

The nominator must be an ASCI member in good standing and must start the nomination:

  • Access your member account
  • Go to the “Nominations” tab, then to the “ASCI / Seldin~Smith Award for Pioneering Research” section
  • Select “I’m the nominator” option
  • Search for your nominee:
    • If found, click on “Create nomination”
    • If no result is found, provide and save the requested information (first name, last name, and email address), then click on “Create nomination” for the newly created nominee in the “Results” section
  • At the top of the nomination form, click on “Send access notification to the nominee at: <email>”
  • Provide a 500-word limit statement on the nominee’s most significant achievement
  • Submit the statement, which can be done regardless of whether the nominee’s part of the nomination is completed

The nominee receives an email with information to access her/his part of the nomination and then must:

  • Provide a birth date and address information
  • Provide a summary (100-word limit) of her/his research, followed by a notation of the percentage of time devoted to direct patient care
  • Provide detail of:
    • Degrees obtained
      • Year of first faculty or equivalent appointment
    • Current institutional affiliation
  • Upload:
    • Current NIH-style biosketch
    • Three significant publications, each with an annotation (100-word limit)
  • Identify the nomination’s supporter and send notification to the supporter to access her/his support form
  • Complete a demographics survey
  • Identify research domain(s)
  • Submit this aspect of the nomination, which can be done regardless of whether the nominator or supporter has completed her/his statement

The supporter:

  • Does not need to be an ASCI member
  • Must be identified and notified by the nominee
  • Provides a statement (500-word limit) of the nominee’s research contributions (the statement should be distinct from that of the nominator)

Nominations open for mid-career member awards, 2025

The ASCI is pleased to call for nominations for awards recognizing the scholarly achievements of mid-career members:

The Marian W. Ropes, MD, Award recognizes a middle-career woman physician-scientist. The annual award honors Dr. Ropes (1903–1994), a pioneer both as a researcher on the role of synovial fluid in joint diseases and as a woman in academic medicine. She was the first woman documented to have been elected to the ASCI. The recipient of this award will receive a $10,000 honorarium, be recognized at the ASCI’s 2025 annual meeting, and give the Ropes Lecture at the 2026 meeting.

The Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award recognizes a middle-career physician-scientist from a population underrepresented in medicine and science. The award honors Dr. Sullivan (born 1933), a hematologist, health care advocate, and policy leader — having served as US Secretary of Health and Human Services — and who was the first Black physician-scientist elected to the ASCI. The recipient of this award will receive a $10,000 honorarium, be recognized at the ASCI’s 2025 annual meeting, and give the Sullivan Lecture at the 2026 meeting.

ASCI members who were elected in 2020 or more recently may be nominated. Additionally:

  • For the Ropes Award, only female members are eligible for nomination.
  • For the Sullivan Award, only UiMS members are eligible for nomination.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is November 4, 2024, at 11:59 pm Eastern. Nominations will be screened to ensure they are complete and fit the award criteria. The ASCI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will review nominations and submit recommendations to the ASCI Council for approval. We expect to notify nominees about the outcome by mid-December 2024.

Nominators:

  • must be ASCI members; current members of the ASCI Council and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee are excluded; and
  • must provide a statement regarding the nominee (500-word limit).

Nominees:

  • must fit the criteria noted above and may not be current members of the ASCI Council and/or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee;
  • may be nominated for only one ASCI award (for example, a nominee for the Ropes Award may not be nominated for the Sullivan Award, Korsmeyer Award, Harrington Prize, or Scharschmidt~Crawford Award);
  • must provide the following:
    • a personal statement (750-word limit) on their scientific achievements, with attention to relevant personal and career history (including a statement on diversity), mentoring experience, and service to the community;
    • a full curriculum vitae; and
    • 3 most-significant publications, each with a 50-word annotation, followed by the member’s role in the publication, the journal name and publication year, and the Pubmed ID noted as “PMID:12345”;
  • must complete the ASCI’s demographics survey; and
  • must provide information regarding their research domain(s).

To start a nomination:

  • Access your member account
  • Go to the “Nominations” tab
  • In the section for the award of interest:
    • If you are the nominee, select the “I’m the nominee” option to start your part of the nomination (only you have access to this information); note that in the case of the Ropes Award, this option will not be available for male members.
    • If you are the nominator, select “I’m the nominator” option, then search for your nominee. Only nominees who were elected starting 2020 will appear in the results. Note: for the Ropes Award, you will only be able to select a nominee who is a woman; for the Sullivan Award, you may select anyone who is within the election-year window, but nominations will be screened (based on the information the nominee provides in the demographics survey) to ensure they fit the UiMS criterion.

Definition of UiMS

The ASCI defines underrepresented in medicine in science as follows: Underrepresented in medicine and science (UiMS) refers to populations that are underrepresented relative to their numbers in the general US population. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, physician-scientists who identify in the following racial and/or ethnic groups: Black/African American, Hispanic or Latin American, Native American/American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander; individuals with disabilities: physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; and those with an educationally or financially disadvantaged background.

Nominations open for the 2025 ASCI / Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award

Nominations for the ASCI’s 2025 ASCI / Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award are now open.

This prestigious recognition, first called the ASCI Award, was renamed in 2006 in honor of Dr. Korsmeyer, the first recipient of the Award in 1998, who passed away in 2005. The Award recognizes individuals for their advancement of knowledge in a specific field and for mentoring future generations of life science researchers. Information on all past honorees is available here.

The Awardee delivers the Korsmeyer Award Lecture at the 2025 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting and receives an unrestricted $20,000 honorarium.

Current Active and International ASCI members are eligible for nomination. Prior nominees who remain eligible may be re-nominated. However, current ASCI Council members and prior Award recipients may not be nominated.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is October 31, 2024, at 11:59 pm Eastern (extended from October 23). Nominations will be screened to ensure they are complete and fit the nomination criteria. The Council reviews nominations, with the outcome of review expected toward the end of November 2024.

Nominators:

  • may be any ASCI member in good standing, including members of the Council;
  • must provide a statement (250-word limit) regarding the nominee; and
  • must comment regarding other investigators who have significantly contributed to the discoveries related to the nomination.

Nominees:

  • must currently be an Active or International member (age 55 or younger);
  • must provide a biosketch, full curriculum vitae, and a trainee table;
  • must identify a former mentee to provide a statement of support (500-word limit);
  • must complete the ASCI’s demographic survey; and
  • must identify their research domain(s).

To start a nomination:

Nominations may be started by the nominator or the nominee:

  • Access your member account
  • Go to the “Activities / nominations” tab
  • Go to the section for “ASCI / Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award”

For the nominator:

  • Select “I’m the nominator” option
  • Search for your nominee
  • Click on “Start nomination”
  • If the nominee has not already claimed her/his part of the nomination, click on “Send nominee information to access the nominee’s part of the nomination” to send the nominee an email to access and edit her/his aspect of the nomination (see above).
  • Supply the required information (see above)
  • Submit this aspect of the nomination

For the nominee:

  • Select “I’m the nominee” option
  • Supply the required information (see above)
  • Submit this aspect of the nomination

Nominations open for the 2025 ASCI / Scharschmidt~Crawford Distinguished Lectureship and Award

Nominations for the ASCI’s 2025 Bruce F. Scharschmidt & Peggy S. Crawford Translational Medicine Distinguished Lectureship and Award are now open.

The Award recognizes those who have made important contributions to the development of high-impact diagnostics or therapeutics for patients. The Awardee delivers the Scharschmidt~Crawford Distinguished Lectureship at the annual AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting and receives an unrestricted $20,000 honorarium. Drs. Scharschmidt and Crawford have pledged a very generous philanthropic gift to the ASCI to fully endow the Award, the first of which will be presented at the 2025 Joint Meeting, April 25-27.

Any person with an MD or equivalent, regardless of ASCI membership, is eligible for nomination. However, current ASCI Council members may not be nominated.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is October 31, 2024, at 11:59 pm Eastern (extended from October 23). Nominations will be screened to ensure they are complete and fit the nomination criteria. The Council reviews nominations, with the outcome of review expected in December 2024.

Nominators:

  • may be any ASCI member in good standing, including members of the Council, and
  • must provide a statement (250-word limit) regarding the nominee.

Nominees:

  • may be any person with an MD or equivalent, regardless of ASCI membership, but excluding members of the Council;
  • must be able to attend the 2025 Joint Meeting, April 25-27, in Chicago;
  • must provide a 500-word-limit description of their contributions to the development of high-impact diagnostics or therapeutics for patients;
  • must provide a full curriculum vitae;
  • must complete the ASCI’s demographic survey; and
  • must provide information regarding their research domain(s).

To start a nomination:

Nominations may be started by the nominator or the nominee:

  • Access your member account
  • Go to the “Activities / nominations” tab
  • Go to the section for “ASCI / Scharschmidt~Crawford Distinguished Lectureship and Award”

For the nominator:

  • Select “I’m the nominator” option
  • Search for your nominee
  • Click on “Start nomination”
  • If the nominee has not already claimed her/his part of the nomination, click on “Send nominee information to access the nominee’s part of the nomination” to send the nominee an email to access and edit her/his aspect of the nomination (see above).
  • Supply the required information (see above)
  • Submit this aspect of the nomination

For the nominee:

… if the nominee is an ASCI member:

  • Select “I’m the nominee” option
  • Supply the required information (see above)
  • Submit this aspect of the nomination

… if the nominee is not ASCI member, the nominee can email staff@the-asci.org to have a nomination set up by staff.

Announcing the Scharschmidt~Crawford Translational Medicine Distinguished Lectureship and Award

The ASCI is honored to announce a new recognition for its community: the Bruce F. Scharschmidt & Peggy S. Crawford Translational Medicine Distinguished Lectureship and Award, which recognizes important contributions to the development of high-impact diagnostics or therapeutics for patients.

The Awardee delivers the Scharschmidt~Crawford Distinguished Lectureship at the annual AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting and receives an unrestricted $20,000 honorarium. Drs. Scharschmidt and Crawford have pledged a very generous philanthropic gift to the ASCI to fully endow the Award, the first of which will be presented at the 2025 Joint Meeting.

The ASCI will begin accepting nominations for the inaugural Award on September 5, with full details on eligibility criteria and the nomination process provided at that time.

About Drs. Scharschmidt and Crawford

Dr. Scharschmidt was elected to the ASCI in 1982. He served as the 1987-1992 Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and as the ASCI’s 1992-1993 President. He attended Northwestern University’s Undergraduate School and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM) and finished his postgraduate training at the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He then served as Professor of Medicine and Chief of Gastroenterology at UCSF, where he and colleagues launched the UCSF liver-transplant program. In 1996 he was recruited to Chiron to head clinical development and biometrics. He was most recently Chief Medical and Development Officer at Hyperion Therapeutics where he oversaw the development of glycerol phenylbutyrate (GPB), an ammonia-lowering agent, which was approved for the treatment of urea-cycle disorders and which achieved success in a phase 2 trial for hepatic encephalopathy.

Dr. Scharschmidt has authored over 200 research and review articles, is inventor/co-inventor on multiple patents, and has published several children’s picture books intended as a fun and early introduction to science. He served as Editor of Sleisenger & Fordtran’s Textbook of Gastroenterology, on the National Board of Directors of the American Liver Foundation, on the President’s Council of UCSF’s J. David Gladstone Institutes, and as mentor to colleagues in academia and industry. He served on the External Advisory Board for the NUFSM Clinical and Translational Science Award (2008-2021), was named Distinguished NUFSM Alumnus in 2010, served as President of the NUFSM Medical Alumni Board (2015-2017), and received the prestigious Service to Northwestern Award in 2018. He has raised over $100,000 for multiple foundations, including the American Liver Foundation, the Karen Department of Health and Welfare (a Myanmar welfare organization for which he and his son organized a fund-raiser bike ride from central Thailand to the Myanmar border), and the National Urea Cycle Disorders Foundation.

Dr. Crawford has devoted her career to the care of her patients and mentoring the next generation of dermatologists. She graduated from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where she also completed a rotating medical internship. She did further post-graduate training with Dr. Steven Katz in the Dermatology Branch of the NIH and completed her Dermatology Residency at UCSF. Afterward, she joined the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group of Northern California. She has served as Clinical Professor of Dermatology on the UCSF volunteer faculty, where she helped mentor and teach a generation of UCSF dermatology residents.

Dr. Crawford has been recognized multiple times as Community Faculty Awardee of the Year by the dermatology residents at UCSF, where she served as member and Chair of the Clinical Faculty Promotions Committee. She has also served on the Board of The Women’s Dermatologic Society, has been an awardee of the Mediterranean Academy of Women in Dermatology, and is a recipient of the Dermatology Foundation’s prestigious Clark W. Finnerud Award, given annually to one U.S. dermatologist who demonstrates exemplary service as a practitioner and teacher.

Drs. Scharschmidt and Crawford have two children: Brent Scharschmidt, MD, is a family medicine physician at the Permanente Medical Group of Northern California and Tiffany Scharschmidt, MD (elected to the ASCI in 2024), is Professor in the UCSF Department of Dermatology, where she currently serves as Vice Chair for Research.

Oliver Eickelberg, MD, elected as 2024-2029 JCI Insight Editor in Chief

Dr. Eickelberg
Dr. Eickelberg

Oliver Eickelberg, MD, has been elected as the 2024-2029 JCI Insight Editor in Chief. He succeeds Dr. Kathleen L. Collins, who has served as the journal’s second Editor in Chief from September 2019. Please join the ASCI Council in extending gratitude to Dr. Collins and her Editorial Board for their service to the journal and the ASCI community, along with best wishes to Dr. Eickelberg and his Editorial Board as they assume leadership of JCI Insight on September 1.

Dr. Eickelberg is the Dorothy P. and Richard P. Simmons Professor of Pulmonary Research and Executive Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He was elected to the ASCI in 2018. Dr. Eickelberg’s full Editorial Board will include more than 30 members drawn from the University of Pittsburgh faculty, including several early-stage investigator Associate Editors, a new initiative for the journal. The Deputy Editors for Dr. Eickelberg’s Editorial Board will be:

  • Toren Finkel, MD, PhD (ASCI, 2002), Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology; G. Nicholas Beckwith III and Dorothy B. Beckwith Chair in Translational Medicine; and Director, Aging Institute;
  • Alison Morris, MD, MS (2013), Professor of Medicine, Immunology, and Clinical and Translational Research; Division Chief, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine; Director, Center for Medicine and the Microbiome; and UPMC Chair in Translational Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine;
  • Anne Marie Lennon, MD, PhD (2020), Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine; and
  • Stephen Y. Chan, MD, PhD (2016), Professor of Medicine; Vitalant Chair in Vascular Medicine; Director of the Vascular Medicine Institute and of the Center for Pulmonary Vascular Biology and Disease; and Associate Chief of Cardiology for Basic Research.

Dr. Benjamin Humphreys, the 2023-24 ASCI President, served as the chair of the Editor Selection Committee that recommended Dr. Eickelberg for the role. “He presented a compelling vision for leading JCI Insight, and he assembled a great team to implement it,” Dr. Humphreys said.

The Committee’s recommendation was presented to the ASCI Council, the leadership body of the ASCI, which approved it for vote by the ASCI’s Active members. Of these members, almost 39% submitted their ballots, with 96% voting to confirm the election of Dr. Eickelberg. The ballot was audited by the Dr. Elizabeth Speliotes, the ASCI’s Secretary-Treasurer, and two voters selected at random who volunteered their time: Drs. Andrew Pieper and Lei Zheng.

Nominations for Active and International membership, 2025

Nominations for Active and International membership for 2025 are open and may be submitted through the deadline of September 16, 2024, 11:59 pm Eastern (extended from September 11). All participants in a nomination should carefully review the information below. Send questions to staff@the-asci.org.

Navigate to section:

About this cycle

Nominees for Active and International membership:

  • must be physicians who have “accomplished meritorious original, creative, and independent investigations in the clinical or allied sciences of medicine” and who enjoy “unimpeachable moral standing in the medical profession” (as stated in the ASCI bylaws);
  • may not be nominated more than three times; and
  • must be age 50 or younger on January 1, 2025.

Proposers are discouraged from nominating those whose qualifications may not be sufficiently advanced, or from re-nominating a candidate if the candidate’s work has changed little since their previous nominations.

The ASCI Council reviews nominations and may recommend up to 100 Active and International nominees for election. The Council presents the recommended nominee group to Active and Senior members to approve by vote. Those elected for 2025 will be recognized at the ASCI’s annual Dinner and New Member Induction Ceremony, April 25, 2025, as part of the 2025 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, April 25-27, at the Swissôtel Chicago.

Note that Council members may not serve in any capacity regarding nominations.

Nomination preparation guidance and instructions

A nomination requires one Proposer and one Seconder, both of whom must be ASCI members in good standing and (if applicable) current in Society dues. General Supporters are optional and are not required to be ASCI members. Note that Emeritus members may participate in any of these roles.

Note: A nominee may request that the nomination be set up for her/his editing by sending an email to staff@the-asci.org; if a Proposer has been identified, provide that person’s name in the request. 

There is no limit to the number of nominations a member can propose or support (either as Seconder or General Supporter).

The Proposer is ideally from an institution different from the nominee’s institution (although this is not required) and should have a good understanding of the nominee’s work. The Proposer is responsible for:

  • starting the nomination (see “ASCI account access” below);
  • granting access to the nominee to edit certain sections of the nomination (see detail in “Nomination sections” below); note that granting access is required, as demographic information can be supplied only by the nominee;
  • providing the “Proposer’s general statement on the nominee” (500-word limit) and “Statement on progress and development since previous nomination” (if applicable, 500-word limit);
  • ensuring that the nomination is accurate and complete; and
  • submitting the nomination.

Nominees can, when granted access, edit sections of the nomination except those exclusive to the Proposer. Only the nominee can provide demographic information, including research domain(s).

The Seconder is ideally from an institution different from the nominee’s institution (although this is not required) and should have a good understanding of the nominee’s work. The Seconder is responsible for completing and submitting a form that includes:

  • scores for the areas enumerated in the form;
  • comments (500-word limit) that supplement, but do not duplicate, information provided by the Proposer and deal specifically with the nominee’s original scientific contributions; and
  • a description of the relationship to the nominee.

General Supporters (not required; limited to 3 per nomination) may help to provide additional context for a nominee’s contributions, and to demonstrate wider support for the nominee beyond the candidate’s own institution, particularly if the Proposer and Seconder of a nomination are from the nominee’s institution. Anyone (including any ASCI member except those on the ASCI Council) may serve as a General Supporter. The General Supporter completes and submits a form that includes:

  • scores for the areas enumerated in the form;
  • comments (250-word limit) that supplement, but do not duplicate, information provided by the Proposer or the Seconder and deal specifically with the nominee’s original scientific contributions; and
  • description of the relationship to the nominee.

A nomination support template may be referenced in order to aid in drafting comments. Please note, however:

  • General Supporters who are ASCI members should complete and submit the required information online through their member accounts (see “ASCI account access”).
  • General Supporters who are not ASCI members should request that the Proposer add them to the nomination. The Proposer is then able to send an email containing information about accessing the support form on the ASCI website.

ASCI account access

  • Access your account
  • Go to the “Activities / nominations” tab, navigate to the “Active and International membership” section, and click on Search for a nominee.
  • Enter the nominee’s last name (you may enter a partial name):
    • If the nominee is found, you’ll be prompted to select your role if available: Proposer, Seconder, or General Supporter.
    • If the nominee isn’t found, provide the requested information to add the nominee and start the nomination by selecting your role (see bullet point immediately preceding).

Nomination sections

  • About the nominee
    Proposer and nominee may edit this information.
  • Nominee’s demographic information
    Only the nominee may edit this information.
    The ASCI requests responses to questions in a brief, 9-section survey that will help provide the foundation for expanding diversity, fostering inclusion, and achieving equity in the ASCI. All response areas are voluntary, with a “Prefer not to answer” option available for each section. Anyone with access to person-specific information (such as ASCI leadership, members associated with review processes, and staff members) will be required to keep the information confidential. Depersonalized summary information of all response areas may be provided in periodic public reports.
  • Nominee’s research domain(s)
    Only the nominee may edit this information.
  • Nominee’s institutional affiliation
    Proposer and nominee may edit this information.
  • Support for nomination
    — Only the Proposer has access to this section.
    Proposers may attach the Seconder and General Supporters to the nomination by searching the ASCI member directory. For a supporter who is not an ASCI member, Proposers must supply the supporter’s name and email address in order to attach the person to the nomination. After supporters are attached to the nomination, Proposers are provided the ability to notify them regarding their support forms.
  • Nominee’s biography
    Proposer and nominee may edit this information.
    Limited to 300 words, this brief summary of the nominee’s research and accomplishments will not be evaluated for review, but will be used to populate the nominee’s ASCI directory entry if the nominee is elected.
  • Documents
    Proposer and nominee may edit this information:

    • Full academic curriculum vitae, including:
      • current funding (clearly indicate whether the nominee is a principal investigator),
      • past funding,
      • invited lectures,
      • patents, and
      • full bibliography (with original research separated from other types of publications and the nominee’s name presented in bold face).
    • NIH-style biographical sketch (5-page limit), following the current format available at:
      http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm
    • A high-resolution headshot photograph (for use if the nominee is recommended for election)
    • Three “Most significant publications,” excluding those representing work done by the nominee as a trainee. For each of these three files, an annotation is required and consists of two aspects:
      1. Author list in the original publication sequence, with the nominee’s name in capital letters, followed by numbered notation of the nominee’s role in parentheses (1 = principal investigator, 2 = collaborator), title, journal name, volume, inclusive page numbers, year, and Pubmed ID (PMID). Example:
        “John Q. Public and JANE DOE (1). Title. Journal. 1:1-10 (2015). PMID 1234”
      2. A description (50-word limit) of the publication’s key findings and significance.
  • Seminal contribution(s)
    —  Proposer and nominee may edit this information.
    Summarize the nominee’s defining seminal contribution(s) and why this work forms the basis for the nomination (75-word limit). Use of lay terminology is encouraged.
  • Proposer’s general statement on the nominee
    Only the Proposer has access to this section.
    In the Proposer’s own words (500-word limit), describe the quality, originality, and impact of the nominee’s scientific work and the consistency and importance of the nominee’s research theme. Include a statement on the level of independence from the nominee’s mentor(s) and the nominee’s productivity and stature in the field.

    • Proposers should expand upon the candidate’s seminal contribution(s), including the originality, novelty, and impact of this research on the field. Note any special circumstances (e.g., childbearing or personal/family illness) that influenced the candidate’s research activities.
    • Information regarding major awards, invitations to give plenary lectures (especially at national and international meetings), and invitations to write chapters in major textbooks should be included as applicable — the quality and quantity of work are important factors.
  • Statement on progress and development since previous nomination
    Proposer and nominee may edit this information.
    In the Proposer’s own words (500-word limit), describe the critical differences between this nomination and the previous nomination (if applicable).

Recipient of the 2024 Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award: Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM

Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM
Dr. Crews
 

The American Society for Clinical Investigation is pleased to recognize Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM, as the recipient of the 2024 Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award, for her scientific contributions to addressing disparities in the care and outcomes of kidney disease and hypertension. Dr. Crews, who will be recognized at the 2024 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, receives an honorarium of $10,000, and delivers a scientific talk at the 2025 meeting.

Dr. Crews is a nephrologist and epidemiologist and among the most influential researchers worldwide advancing kidney health equity. Her seminal studies (among >250 publications) show: low socioeconomic status (SES) differentially impacts CKD risk and associated mortality among Black versus White Americans; limited access to healthy foods and housing insecurity are potent risk factors for poor CKD outcomes; diet quality impacts CKD risk especially for minoritized persons with low SES; perceived discrimination is associated with progressive loss of kidney function; and functional status of older and low SES adults with kidney failure is improved through a novel home-based intervention. She led studies to define the optimal level of kidney function at which kidney replacement therapy should be initiated, contributing to reversal of the US practice of initiating dialysis in patients still with significant residual kidney function. She led a dietary intervention trial for Black adults with CKD, hypertension and low SES whose results could solidify dietary modification as recommended therapy for this population. She is deputy director of a model health equity research center and co-PI of two NIH center awards focused on advancing equity in kidney and cardio-metabolic diseases.

As a Black American descendant of enslaved people with a strong family history of kidney disease, I have devoted my career to improving the kidney health of people from socially marginalized groups and to advancing inclusive excellence in the biomedical workforce.

— Dr. Crews

Dr. Susan E. Quaggin nominated Dr. Crews for the Award, stating, “Her work has informed clinical guidelines and has catalyzed the study of social drivers of disparities in chronic kidney disease.” Dr. Quaggin emphasized the influence of Dr. Crews’ work and the accolades she has received for exceptional research, leadership, and mentorship, such as the Johns Hopkins University President’s Frontier Award, election to the National Academy of Medicine (2023), and the Distinguished Leader Award from the American Society of Nephrology, an organization for which Dr. Crews is the first Black president.

Dr. Crews earned her BA from the University of Virginia and her MD from Saint Louis University School of Medicine. She completed a nephrology fellowship and a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, where she was selected as a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Scholar, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Crews is now Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She holds appointments in the School of Nursing; the Department of Epidemiology; the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research; the Center on Aging and Health; and the Center for Health Equity, where she is Deputy Director. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2020.

Recipient of the 2024 Marian W. Ropes, MD, Award: Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia, MD, MSc

Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia, MD, MSc
Dr. Hsia

The American Society for Clinical Investigation is pleased to recognize Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia, MD, MSc, as the recipient of the 2024 ASCI/Marian W. Ropes, MD, Award, for her scientific contributions to understanding the relationship between access to emergency care and disparities in the health care system. Dr. Hsia, who will be recognized at the 2024 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, receives an honorarium of $10,000, and delivers a scientific talk at the 2025 meeting.

Dr. Hsia’s work has elucidated how market-driven imbalances in the supply and demand of emergency care produce preventable mortality and exacerbate underlying inequities. She investigates issues relating to population access to emergency departments and trauma centers; the distribution of emergency care across income areas; factors associated with closure of emergency services; how these closures affect patient outcomes, specifically focusing on patients with acute myocardial infarction, stroke, asthma/COPD, sepsis, and trauma; and the variation of costs and charges in the health care system.

My energy, and my passion, is rooted in daily encounters with patients who cannot access the benefits of our system as easily as others, and my work is based on a conviction that systems and structures must be considered carefully with attention to both efficiency and equity.
— Dr. Hsia

In nominating Dr. Hsia, Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz wrote, “In the ten years that I have known her, I have been privileged to see how her humanity is what ultimately drives her perseverance and capacity for critical analysis, as well as her unwavering commitment to studying issues that fundamentally contribute to the structural inequity of our health care system.” Dr. Krumholz noted Dr. Hsia’s highly cited academic research, which has also gained extensive attention in popular media.

Dr. Hsia received her BA from Princeton University and MSc from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She earned her MD at Harvard Medical School and completed an internship and residency at Stanford University. Dr. Hsia is now Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy; Vice Chair of Health Services Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine, where she was hired as the first woman researcher on a research track; and a member of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the founder and director of the UCSF Policy Lab of Acute Care and Emergencies (PLACE). As a clinician, she attends at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, a county hospital where most indigent patients, along with documented and undocumented immigrants, receive care and where she regularly uses her skills in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Spanish. Dr. Hsia was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2019.