The Medical Guild of the College of Medicine Graduate Student Competitions
There are two competitions for senior Biomedical Sciences graduate students: the traditional Graduate Research Awards and Advancement to Candidacy Awards. The Graduate Research Awards are based on research seminar competition from each advanced concentration, and the Advancement to Candidacy Awards are based on performance of third year students after being admitted to candidacy by passing their qualifying examinations. The instructions for each of these competitions are below.
Graduate Research Awards
The 48th annual Medical Guild-sponsored graduate student research competition is scheduled for Wednesday, April 12 from 1-3pm in the Harrell Medical Education Building, room 135. Each Biomedical Sciences advanced concentration nominates one graduate student for participation in this competition, which will consist of a 10-minute oral research presentation and a 5-minute Q&A session for each participant. Presentations will be evaluated by a panel of faculty judges, who will rank them in terms of excellence. Additionally, the students submit an abstract of their research and biosketch because the awards are also based on the overall research accomplishments including publications, presentations, awards, and academic performance. All eight students will be recognized at the symposium reception, which begins immediately after the seminar competition. Each finalist will receive a cash award (electronically deposited into their student account) from the UF Medical Guild based on the judges’ final rankings: one Gold Medal finalist, two Silver Medal finalists, and five Bronze Medal finalists (this is subject to change).
Applications
Advanced program directors or their designates will coordinate the selection of the nominee from each advanced program in time for submission of the nominating packets. Please contact your concentration coordinator or graduate administrator for more information.
Nomination packets should include:
- A title page that includes the name of graduate student nominee, the name of the nominees mentor, and the exact title of the presentation
- An abstract that summarizes the student’s research. This should be no more than one page in length (single-spaced) and should include the objectives, methods, results and conclusions.
- A research article that provides a more detailed report of the student’s research. This should include the objectives, background, significance, results, and conclusions, and should not exceed 1,500 words double-spaced. Literature citations and experimental methods should be included as an appendix, and do not count toward the word limitation. NOTE: Reprints of published manuscripts that the student has authored should not be submitted in lieu of this description.
- An up-to-date biosketch, including publications, abstracts presented at meetings, honors & awards, and grant funding.
Nomination packets should be submitted as an e-mail attachment (PDF format is fine) to biomed@med.ufl.edu. The packets will be provided to the judges. Nomination packets must be received no later than March 24, 2023.
Advancement to Candidacy Awards
The Advancement to Candidacy Award is aimed at recognizing outstanding students in their mid-tenure after they have passed their qualifying examination in their third year of study. A committee composed of faculty members from each concentration will evaluate the concentration nominees and will choose the top three finalists, who will receive monetary awards. The winners will be announced at the reception following the Graduate Student Research Award competition on April 12, 2023.
The Advancement to Candidacy Award recognizes both academic and research excellence. Therefore, the criteria for assessment will include:
- The transcript of the student in their studies (Office of Grad Ed will provide).
- An up-to-date biosketch, including publications, abstracts presented at meetings, honors & awards, and grant funding.
- A letter of recommendation by the student’s dissertation mentor.
The concentration directors will nominate up to three students from their concentration for this award by March 17, 2023. A committee made up of representatives from each concentration will choose the top three by March 24, 2023. Nomination packets should be submitted as an e-mail attachment (PDF format is fine) to biomed@med.ufl.edu. Completed packets must be received no later than March 24, 2023.
Council of Academic Chairs Scholarship
The Council of Academic Chairs Scholarship is awarded annually to the graduate student who earns top honors in the Advancement to Candidacy Competition. This scholarship was established in the Fall of 2015 when several College of Medicine basic science chairs made personal gifts and pledges to the University of Florida Foundation to establish, fund, and ultimately to endow a scholarship for the student who earns top honors in the Advancement to Candidacy competition. The scholarship provides funds so that they may attend a scientific or educational career development course, such as courses offered at Jackson Laboratory in Maine, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory or Woods Hole.
In support of the Council of Academic Chairs Scholarship the University Florida Foundation has established a fund named: Friends of Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences with the fund code: 020269.
Individuals wishing to contribute to this Scholarship may do so online at: https://www.uff.ufl.edu/OnlineGiving/FundDetail.asp?FundCode=020269
Graduate Student Education Initiative Award
Description: The UF College of Medicine Graduate Student Education Initiative Award annually honors a current College of Medicine PhD student for excellence in education. The UF College of Medicine established this award in 2016 in honor of its 60th anniversary, having successfully matriculated over 1,200 PhD graduates since 1960. These graduates have excelled in positions in research, education, and affiliated careers around the world.
Eligibility: A nominee must be a PhD candidate (having successfully passed qualifying exam) in good standing in a UF College of Medicine graduate program.
Nomination and Selection Process:
Nominees will submit the following documents (in one pdf file), describing their contributions to the educational mission of the College of Medicine and University, via email to the COM Office of Graduate Education by March 24, 2023 at biomed@med.ufl.edu). The judging committee will choose the winner by April 12, 2023.
- Biosketch including list of educational accomplishments.
- A personal statement describing the nominee’s dedication and contributions to the educational mission of the College of Medicine and University. This could include: didactic teaching (invited lectures in courses or separate events), small group teaching, student mentoring, laboratory-based teaching, creation of innovative educational/ learning activities/tools, courses and/or workshops related to teaching, and any other efforts to promote educational excellence (formal or informal). The statement should also describe the nominee’s career plans as they relate to education.
The following should also be submitted directly to the UF-COM Office of Graduate Education (biomed.med@ufl.edu) on behalf of the nominee by March 17, 2023:
- Required: at least one letter from a faculty member describing his/her experience with the nominee’s involvement in education, and must include comment as to the quality of the nominee’s teaching efforts.
- Optional: letter of support from an individual(s) that the nominee instructed/mentored during his/her graduate career.
The Award:
The recipient of the UF College of Medicine Graduate Student Educational Initiative Award will receive an award of $500.
– Thomas Rowe, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Graduate Education
2023 Medical Guild Research Competition Winners
2023 Advancement to Candidacy Winners
2023 College of Medicine Education Initiative Award Recipient
Past College of Medicine Education Initiative Award Recipients
- 2023: Natalie Johnson (Pharmacology and Therapeutics)
- 2022: Vrunda Trivedi (BMS-Cancer Biology)
- 2021: Mai Tanaka-Wakefield (BMS-Cancer Biology)
- 2020: Alex Lee (Heath Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics)
- 2019: Andrea Lin (BMS-Immunology and Microbiology)
- 2018: Julie Bray (BMS- Cancer Biology)
- 2017: (Inaugural) Angela McCall (BMS-Genetics)
Past Council of Academic Chairs Scholarship Recipients
Medical Guild & Spring Awards » Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences » College of Medicine » University of Florida
- 2023: Mario Chang
- 2022: Phillip Mackie
- 2021: Leanna Peters
- 2020: Adityha Gopinath
- 2019: Jacob Andring
- 2018: John Calise
- 2017: Carrie Lomelino
- 2016: (Inaugural) Daniel Delitto
Past Medical Guild Research Competition winners
- 2023: Rachel Newsome, Mario Chang, Caitlin Baumer-Harrison, Cora Hart, Grace Lloyd, Mollie Huber, Sadia Sarwar, Frederick Ashby
- 2022: Adithya Gopinath, Tiffany Frey, Julien Habif, Vrunda Trivedi, Mark McLeod, Ryan Hildebrandt, Collin Douglas, Bin Li
- 2021: Yuxing Xia, Emily Helm, Mai Tanaka-Wakefield, Chao Xie, William Dodd, Shanan Emmanuel, Shu Guo, Brandon Murphy
- 2020 Patrick Kellish, Kristen Skruber, Jacob Andring, Kelly DeMars, Lance Denes, Chao Xie, Ashley Zuniga
- 2019: John Calise, Hunter Futch, Danielle Vermilyea, Betty Wang, Julie Bray, Jana Jenquin, Casey Keuthan, Lance Riley
- 2018: Vindhya Vijay, Cristina Colomer Winter, Caesar Hernandez, Carrie Lomelino, Iqbal Mahmud, Ruan Oliveira, Lance Riley, Mengxiong Wang
- 2017: Brittney Newby, James Thomas, Sruti Rayoprolu, Amani Harrandah, Rosha Poudyal, Allyson Shea, Miguel Zarate
- 2016: Brian Mahon, Joonseok Cho, Justin Kaspar, Stephen Chrzanowski, Yuan Lu, Danielle Sambo
- 2015: Douglas Bennion, Rony Francois, Geoffrey Rogers, Fatma Ayhan, Shweta Kailasan, Regina Martuscello
- 2014: Amanda Sacino, Thomas Biel, Tal Salz, Harald Messer, Mini Manchanda, Kamil Nowicki
- 2013: Ranjan Batra, Stephan Jahn, Hyun Min Jung, Mayank Aggarwal, Cristina Banuelos, Chao Liu
- 2012: Serena Giovinazzi, Marci Mitchell, Brandon Sack, Joeva Barrow, Karlie Bonstaff, Nikolett Molnar
- 2011: Sonisha A. Warren, Chen Ling, Sushama Kamarajugadda, Alex Cuenca, Bing Yao, Sarah E. Mondello
- 2010: Emily Smith, Sarah Szarowicz, Adam Mecca, William Donelan, Katherine Sippel, Travis Jackson
- 2009: Sunitha Rangaraju, Songqing Li, Andres Acosta, MD, Brittney L. Gurda, Jihae Shin, Sushrusha Nayak
- 2008: Allyn Spear, Jason O’Rourke,Jeffrey Brower,Stephen Fernando,Jason Weinstein
- 2007: Pui Lee, Roxana Coman, Zane Zeier, Kwon-Ho Hong, You-Lin Tain, Kim Van Vliet
- 2006: Valerie Crusselle Davis, Christina Pacak, Michael Godeny, Amar Singh, Nicole Tester, Bei Wang
- 2005: Antonio Amelio, Stephanie Amici, Christina Norris, Padraic Levings, Ann Griswold, Sean Kearns
- 2004: Karen Vieira, Rahul Kanadia, Eric Sandberg, Edgar Rodriguez, Mary Ann Checkley, Alaric Falcon
- 2003: Stormy Chamberlain, Jared Wilsey, Erin Keen Rhinehart, Chris Williams, Steve Guthrie, Jin He
- 2002: Angela Starkes, Brian Raisler, Kelly Leach, Mike Thomson, Jason Coleman, Yi Tang
- 2001: Matthew Simmons, Don Latner, Sung-Hae Lee Kang, Keith Bahjat
- 2000: Vincent Leveque, Harveen Dhillon, Susan Blaydes, Lingyun Li
- 1999: Yuan Clare Zhang, Darwin Ang, Kristin B. Moon, Yujiang Shi
- 1998: Jeff Martens, Jill Miller, Kelly McDonald, Pei Wu
- 1997: Annette Oberdorf, Stephen T. Nowicki, Mary Catherine Bowman, Miduturu Srinivas
- 1996: Scott Wilson, Tiffany Alley, Steve Munger, Chris Robinson