Graduate Students Honored at Convocation

Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences honored students in the Class of 2023 for their academic achievements during its convocation ceremony on May 17.

The ceremony recognized students who are graduating with their master’s degrees, as well as those who earned special awards and prizes for their accomplishments in research, scholarship and service.

In addition to celebrating students, the ceremony also honored graduate school faculty as well as Dr. Cheryl Dreyfus (Ph.D. '76), who won the 2023 Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences Award of Distinction. The award honors alumni who have demonstrated exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions to biomedical research and education.

Click the photo to view the full Graduate School Convocation Flickr gallery.

The following is a complete list of all of the award winners:

Alumni Award of Distinction
Dr. Cheryl Dreyfus (Ph.D. ‘76)
Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Distinguished Student Commencement Speaker Award
Christopher Michael Bourne
(Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program Mentor, David A. Scheinberg, M.D., Ph.D.)

David P. Hajjar Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award
Daniel A. Bachovchin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Pharmacology Program

Pharmacology Teaching and Mentoring Award
Anthony Sauve, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Pharmacology Program
Awarded posthumously

Julian R. Rachele Prize

• Nakul Yadav, "Prefrontal feature representations drive memory recall." Yadav, Y., Noble, C., Niemeyer, J.E., Terceros, A., Victor, J., Liston, C., Rajasethupathy, P. Nature 608.7921 (2022): 153-160. (Mentor: Conor Liston, M.D., Ph.D.)
•  Jiang Yining, "Membrane-mediated protein interactions drive membrane protein organization Jiang, Y., Thienpont, B., Sapuru, V., Hite, R.K., Dittman, J., Sturgis, J.N., Scheuring, S." Nature Communications 13.1 (2022): 7373. (Mentor: Simon Scheuring, Ph.D.)

Student Service Award
Amanda Simon, Neuroscience Program (Mentor: Diany Calderon, M.D., Ph.D.)

• Mentor for the Traveler’s Summer Research Fellowship Program
• Member of development team for IlluminXation, a newly established STEM program for children in the Bronx

Student Diversity Award
Josue Barnes, Physiology, Biophysics & Systems Biology Program (Mentors: Iman Hajirasouliha, Ph.D., and Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.)

• Past President, Tri-Institutional Minority Society; Member, Social Justice and Anti-Racism Taskforce

2023 Executive MBA/MS Excellence in Healthcare Leadership Award
Pascale Marthe White, M.D.
Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership

Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium Awards

Vincent du Vigneaud First-Year Poster Presentation Awards

First Place

• Vigneshwari Easwar Kumar, “Regulation of Epigenetic Repression by Macromolecular Interactions.” (PI Yicheng Long, Ph.D.)

Second Place

• Stephanie W. Tam, “Investigating New Small-Molecule Inhibitors of ICMT.” (PI Stephen B. Long, Ph.D.)

Third Place

• Ian McBain, “Tissue Specific NK Cells Exhibit Functional Differences.” (PI Joseph Sun, Ph.D.)

Vincent du Vigneaud Second-Year & Above Poster Awards

First Place

• Winson Cai, “Antigen-Independent Targeting Lysis of Cancer Cells with LIGHT-CAR T Cells.” (PI David A. Scheinberg, M.D., Ph.D.)

Second Place

• Anvita Singaraju, “CD38hi Cytotoxic CD8 T Cells are Expanded Following Checkpoint Blockade and Characterize the T Cell Infiltrate in Checkpoint Inhibitor-Associated Arthritis.” (PI Laura Donlin, Ph.D.)

Third Place

• Rachel Payne, “Development of a PSMA Heterogeneous Tumor Model for Targeted Radiotherapy.” (PI Jason S. Lewis, Ph.D.)

Vincent du Vigneaud Oral Presentation Awards

First Place

• Ying Xue Xie, “Lysosomal Exocytosis Releases Pathogenic α-Synuclein Species from Neurons.” (PI Manu Sharma, Ph.D.)

Second Place

• Annalise Schweickart, “Profiling the Metabolomic Effects of the Ketogenic Diet and Elucidating their Role in Health and Disease Outcomes.” (PI Jan Krumsiek, Ph.D.)

Third Place  

• Kathleen A. M. Mills, “Epithelial-Immune Cell Crosstalk Orchestrates Pulmonary Immunity to Aspergillus Fumigatus.” (PI Tobias M. Hohl, M.D., Ph.D.)

Physician Assistant Student and Faculty Awards

Click the photo to view the full Physician Assistant Convocation Flickr gallery.

Outstanding Preclinical Instructor Award
William J. Ameres, M.S., PA-C

Outstanding Clinical Instructor Award
Kathryn Harris, PA-C 

Academic Excellence Award Preclinical
Rita Kushner

Academic Excellence Award Clinical
Emma Fellows

Peer Award
Joseph Lalor

Research Excellence Award for Outstanding Performance During the Thesis Proposal and Defense
Ashley Bufano

Dr. Verne E. Chaney Humanitarian Healthcare Award
Paige Willian