NIH Researchers Honored with Presidential Early Career Award

NIH researchers and numerous researchers at NIH grantee organizations were honored by President Biden with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

The award recognized outstanding early-career scientists and engineers employed or funded by the federal government.

Here’s a list of the NIH researchers:

Benedict Anchang

Benedict Anchang is a Stadtman Tenure-Track Principal Investigator at the NIH, specializing in computational systems biology. He also serves as an Adjunct Principal Investigator at the NCI. Previously, he was an instructor and computational biologist at Stanford University. His work focuses on cancer systems biology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics.

Sadhana Jackson

Sadhana Jackson is a Tenure-Track Investigator at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), leading clinical and preclinical studies to improve chemotherapy delivery to the central nervous system. She previously served as an Assistant Clinical Investigator at NINDS and is an Instructor at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Sadhana has also trained as a Pediatric Neurooncology/Clinical Pharmacology fellow at Johns Hopkins and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Yogen Kanthi

Yogen Kanthi is the Chief of the Section of Vascular Thrombosis and Inflammation at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), where he also serves as a Lasker Investigator. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, having previously held roles as Assistant Professor and Clinical Lecturer.

Sonja W. Scholz

Sonja W. Scholz, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Investigator at the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Unit. A neurologist and neurogeneticist specializing in movement and cognitive disorders, she earned her medical degree from the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Neurogenetics (NIA) under Drs. Andrew Singleton and John Hardy, Dr. Scholz earned a Ph.D. in Neurogenomics from University College London in 2010. She completed her neurology residency at Johns Hopkins and received the McFarland Transition to Independence Award for Neurologist-Scientists in 2015.

Nirali N. Shah

Nirali N. Shah, M.D., M.H.Sc., is a Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist and NIH Lasker Investigator. She earned her M.D. from the University of Illinois and completed dual residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard. Dr. Shah also trained at the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins, and holds a Master’s in Clinical Research from NIH-Duke. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

Hugo Tejeda

Hugo Tejeda, Ph.D., is a Stadtman Principal Investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health. He completed his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, where he studied neuromodulatory systems in prefrontal and limbic circuits. Dr. Tejeda’s postdoctoral work at NIDA with Dr. Antonello Bonci focused on the role of monoamine and opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens. His research investigates how neuromodulation affects information processing in limbic circuits, both under normal conditions and in psychiatric disorders.

The National Institutes of Health shared on LinkedIn:

“Congratulations to the six NIH researchers and numerous researchers at NIH grantee organizations were honored by President Biden with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

This award recognizes outstanding early-career scientists and engineers who are employed or funded by the federal government.”