Cristina Paz and Athena Golfinos recently received awards to attend the 2022 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. The meeting, held in April in New Orleans, brought together over 20,000 scientists, clinicians and other health care professionals, survivors, patients, and advocates from around the world to share the latest advances in cancer research and medicine.
Cancer Biology graduate student Cristina Paz (Kimple laboratory), received the Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award from the Minorities in Cancer Research (MICR) group. MICR focuses on cancer prevention and therapies and on meeting the professional needs and advancing the careers of scientists from under-represented minorities. MICR offers programing at the AACR Annual Meeting and other resources to support minority faculty and early career scientists. Cristina’s award provided funding to attend the AACR Annual Meeting, as well as access to insightful seminars on dismantling systemic racism within cancer centers and addressing disparities in cancer services in the community. “I had the opportunity to network with fantastic, underrepresented scholars from around the country and to join a great community of scientists”, said Cristina. “Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and I feel so happy to have been honored with this award.”
Athena Golfinos, Dinh laboratory, received the Scholar-in-Training Award for her research on “Defining tumor infiltrating myeloid microenvironment landscapes in HPV+ and HPV- head and neck cancers”. The highly competitive award recognizes outstanding young investigators for their research. Athena’s award was funded from the Doreen J. Putrah Cancer Research Foundation and supported her attendance at the 2022 AACR Annual Meeting. “I’m extremely honored and humbled at the opportunity to be acknowledged by AACR and the Doreen J. Putrah Cancer Research Foundation for my work and contribution to cancer research, said Athena. “I was able to meet many exceptional young scientists who were also granted this award. It was an invaluable opportunity to network with many talented individuals, who all share a common goal of decoding cancer complexity and improving patient outcomes.” Athena was the only Wisconsinite to receive this award this year (GO BADGERS!)
Congratulations Cristina and Athena!
For more information about these awards, go to: