Annually Administered Awards

Graduate Student Awards Carl C. Smith Graduate Student Award

Flagship graduate student award within the Mechanisms Specialty Section, and is the oldest graduate student award. Recognizes outstanding research by graduate students at the Annual Meeting. Finalists are selected based on strength of abstract and invited to submit a manuscript based on work presented at the Annual Meeting. First, second and third place winners are awarded plaques and monetary prizes.

Robert J. Rubin Student Travel Award Administered in partnership with the Risk Assessment Specialty Section, recognizes outstanding research applying mechanistic toxicology to risk assessment. Provides travel awards to one or more graduate students to participate in the Annual Meeting.

Ronald G. Thurman Student Travel Award Recognizes presenting authors on one or more mechanistic abstracts by providing a travel award to participate in the Annual Meeting.

Sheldon D. Murphy Student Travel Award

Recognizes presenting authors on mechanistic abstracts by providing a travel award to participate in the Annual Meeting. Approximately 5-6 awardees are selected each year.

Postdoctoral Scientist Awards Postdoctoral Student Travel Award

Honors two outstanding postdoctoral fellows with a travel award to attend the Annual Meeting.

Gabriel L. Plaa Education Award Recognizes outstanding postdoctoral research. Recipients are selected based on strength of abstract, CV, cover letter, recommendation letters, and performance in interviews conducted prior to the Annual Meeting. First, second, and third place prizes are awarded.

Additional Awards Renal Toxicology Award

Recognizes outstanding research conducted in renal toxicology by graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. Awardees receive monetary prizes.

Career Achievement Award* Honors a member’s career achievements, leadership in SOT, and

predominantly contributions to mechanistic research.

Incoming Officers (2018-2019)

2017-2018 Officers

Symposium Adipocyte Toxicology and Obesogens

Symposium Decoding Oxidative Stress from Inflammation: Implications for Exposure, Toxicity and Disease

Symposium Revising Biology: Using Genomic and Epigenomic Editing to Gain Novel Insight into the Mechanisms of Toxic Exposure Effects and Susceptibility

Workshop Predicting Drug-Induced Cholestatic Injury in Humans

Symposium Effectively Leveraging Cellular Functional Genomics Strategies for Elucidating Chemical Mechanism of Action

Symposium Mitochondria Biogenesis and Dysfunction in Cellular Senescence in the Cardiopulmonary System

Symposium The Role of the Epigenome in the Etiology of Metal-Induced Disease

2018 Annual Meeting Sponsored/Endorsed Programming

2017 Awardees

Officer Organization Position Brian S. Cummings

University of Georgia

President

Donna D. Zhang

University of Arizona

Vice President

Rhiannon N. Hardwick

Theravance Biopharma

Vice President-Elect

Angela L. Slitt University of Rhode Island

Past President

Martin Ronis Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

Secretary/Treasurer

Udayan M. Apte Kansas University Medical Center

Senior Councilor

Kristina K. Wolf LifeNet Health Junior Councilor Dwayne Carter Organovo, Inc. Postdoctoral

Representative Kyle S. Saitta Rutgers

University Graduate Student Representative

Officer Organization Position

Brian J. Day National Jewish Health Vice President-Elect

James P. Luyendyk

Michigan State University Junior Councilor

Laura Armstrong Rutgers University Postdoctoral

Representative Cody Schmidlin

University of Arizona

Graduate Student Representative

Mechanisms Specialty Section

•  Founded in 1981 as the first Specialty Section within the Society of Toxicology

•  The Mechanisms Specialty Section represents a diverse group of members of the Society of Toxicology who have common interests and expertise in elucidating the cellular, biochemical and molecular mechanisms of action of toxic substances

•  The Mechanisms Specialty Section provides a focal point for interaction of members of the Society of Toxicology interested in the development and dissemination of new advances in mechanistic research in toxicology

•  A newsletter is published two times a year to inform members and the SOT community about membership, endowment funds, and upcoming award opportunities

Graduate Student Award Winners

Postdoctoral Scientist Award Winners

Career Achievement Award

The Mechanisms Specialty Section enacted the Career Achievement Award in 2014 in order to honor the achievements and contributions of an outstanding member to mechanistic toxicological research. The 2017 Career Achievement Award was presented to Steven D. Cohen, PhD, Fellow ATS (pictured left). Dr. Cohen is a leading researcher known for toxicology education and for shaping the careers of several current leaders in SOT and the Mechanisms Specialty Section. As an educator at the University of Connecticut, he founded the Center for Biochemical Toxicology and the Inter-departmental Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Environmental Toxicology. He has served in numerous leadership positions within SOT, including President. He has made multiple key findings that elucidated the mechanisms by which acetaminophen induced liver and kidney damage and has contributed to our understanding of covalent binding to target-organ toxicity.

Student/Postdoc Award Winners

Sheldon D. Murphy Student Travel Award

Left to Right: Dahea You (Rutgers), Madelyn Huang (UNC), Nehal Gupta (Texas Tech), Cory Gerlach (Harvard), Kelly Fader (Michigan State), Gopi Gadapudi (Iowa).

Ronald G. Thurman Student Travel Award

Left to Right: Yu-Syuan Luo (Texas A&M), Diptadip Dattaroy (S. Carolina). Not pictured: Ramiya Kumar (Clemson)

Carl C. Smith Graduate Student Award

Left to Right: 1st Place, Dahea You (Rutgers); 2nd Place, Kelly Fader (Michigan State); 3rd Place (tie), Bryan Harder (Arizona) and Emma Bowers (UNC)

Robert J. Rubin Student Travel Award

Yvonne Chang (Oregon State)

Renal Toxicology Award

Left to Right: 3rd Place, Cory Gerlach (Harvard); 2nd Place, Qian Lin (Louisville); 1st Place, Priyanka Trivedi (Harvard)

Postdoctoral Student Travel Award

Left to Right: Kristin Bircsak (Penn), Jolyn Fernandes (Emory)

Gabriel L. Plaa Education Award

Left to Right: 2nd Place, Matt Dodson (Arizona); 1st Place, Gregory Smith (UNC); 3rd Place, Joseph Cichocki (Texas A&M)

2017-2018 Mechanisms Specialty Section Officers