Geoffrey Beene Graduate Student Fellows -- (From left) Oakley Olson, Piero Sanfilippo, and Daniel Marks.
John Maciejowski Awarded Chairman’s Prize
John Maciejowski, a fifth-year graduate student in Prasad Jallepalli’s lab in the Molecular Biology Program, was awarded the Chairman’s Prize for his first-author paper Mps1 directs the assembly of Cdc20-inhibitory complexes during interphase and mitosis to control M phase timing and spindle checkpoint signaling, published July 2010 in the Journal of Cellular Biology. [PubMed Abstract] The focus of the research was using chemical genetics to rapidly and specifically inhibit the human Mps1 kinase, which belongs to an evolutionarily conserved family of SAC regulators. See John’s application essay for full explanation of the the significance of the work and the key findings.
This award was established by Gerstner Sloan Kettering Board of Trustees Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., for whom our graduate school is named. Mr. Gerstner is an internationally renowned corporate leader who has long been an advocate of quality education. The Chairman’s Prize is awarded annually.
Geoffrey Beene Graduate Student Fellowships Announced
Three second-year students — Daniel Marks, Oakley Olson, and Piero Sanfilippo — received Geoffrey Beene Graduate Student Fellowships. Recipients are selected at the end of their first year of study based on academic excellence. By providing support for outstanding students at Gerstner Sloan Kettering, the Beene Fellowships are designed to expand the pool of investigators trained to pursue research in the highly complex, multidisciplinary field of cancer biology.
Two Grayer Fellows Named
Third-year students John Halliday and Ellen Hukkelhoven have been named as Grayer Fellows.
These fellowships were established by Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Grayer. Mr. Grayer is a member of the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Board of Trustees and the former chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc., which he transformed from a small test-prep provider into a global education corporation serving over one million students.
Grayer Fellows are selected based on achieved excellence, as demonstrated by their thesis proposal examinations.
Catell Fellowship Awarded
Second-year student Prashant Monian was named the 2010-2011 Robert B. Catell Fellow. The fellowship — established by Robert B. Catell out of a strong belief in the need for advanced cancer research — supports the stipend of a graduate student of the Gerstner-Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for one year. Mr. Catell, the former Chairman and CEO of KeySpan, chairs the Advisory Boards for the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University and the New York State Smart Grid Consortium, as well as chairing the Advisory Councils of the New York Energy Policy Institute and the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation. He is also on the boards of the Cristo Rey Network’s Lourdes Academy, Futures in Education Endowment, Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation, the New York City Police Foundation, and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
Olayan Fellowship Awarded
Second-year student Lindsay Saunders was selected as the 2010-2011 Olayan Fellow. This fellowship was established by The Olayan Group to support the stipend of a graduate student of the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for one year. Founded in 1947 by Suliman S. Olayan, The Olayan Group is a multinational organization made up of more than 50 companies and affiliated businesses.