Department of Pediatrics honors, November 2024
The Department of Pediatrics is thrilled to have so many honors and awards to share this month! Please join us in congratulating these outstanding achievements:
Sandra McKay, MD, FAAP, Associate Professor and Director of Community & General Pediatric Division, has been elected to the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) membership.
Tina O. Findley, MD, Associate Professor, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, shared her story and experience in an ECI biocommentary in the Journal of Pediatric Research. To read the full version, contact Clarissa Webb.
From the Lab of Rachel Miller, Phd
Brandy Walker, MS, third-year Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) PhD student in the Miller Lab, was awarded the 2024 President’s Research Excellence Award. This competitive research grant is supported by the President’s Research Excellence Fund and is established in honor of Sue and Logan Brown’s generous commitment to basic science research. It will be awarded in support of an innovative and impactful research project in any area of biomedical science that is carried out by a GSBS student and their advisor at UTHealth Houston. Total funding will be up to $50,000 over a one-year period.
Ms. Walker also earned first place for her poster at the Aquatic Models of Human Disease Conference. She recently received notice that she has been appointed a Pre-doctoral Fellowship position in the UTHealth Houston Center for Clinical and Translational Science T32 Training program.
Rachel Miller has been named one of two primary instructors of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory international course Cell & Developmental Biology of Xenopus: Gene Discovery & Disease. Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,000 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. The Meetings & Courses Program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year on its campuses in Long Island and in Suzhou, China. The Laboratory’s education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a graduate school and programs for middle, high school, and undergraduate students and teachers.
SSPR Honors for Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Division
Neonatal-Perinatal fellow Aman Jain, MD
Neonatal-Perinatal fellow Frank Abene, DO, MSADE
Assistant Professor Maria del Mar Romero López, MD, MS, PhD
Anna Melendez-Smith, medical student, and Aman Jain, MD, class of 2025 fellow, have been selected to receive 2025 SSPR Trainee Travel Awards.
Frank Abene, DO, MSADE, class of 2025 fellow, has been selected as a winner of the 2025 SSPR David Oelberg Honorary Trainee Travel Award presented for top-scoring Perinatal abstracts by trainees.
Maria del Mar Romero López, MD, MS, PhD, has been selected as a winner of the 2025 SSPR Young Faculty Award.