Five School of Medicine faculty members have been selected to receive 2019 Physician-Scientist “Strong Start” awards. The School of Medicine created the awards program in 2016, funded with a gift from the Duke Endowment, to support promising, new physician-scientists at Duke as they develop independent research programs. Each recipient will receive $70,000 annually for three years to support their research programs.
2019 Recipients
- Dennis Abraham, MD, Assistant Professor Department of Medicine
- David Brown, MD PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Surgery
- Pinar Gumus Balikcioglu, MD, Assistant Professor Department of Pediatrics
- Brent Hanks, MD, Assistant Professor Department of Medicine
- Noelle Younge, MD, Assistant Professor Department of Pediatrics
“The career path for physician-scientists can be very challenging, requiring years of both clinical and scientific training,” said Andrew Alspaugh, MD, professor of Medicine / Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and director of the Strong Start awards program. “The goal of this award program is to provide mentoring and financial resources to support these young faculty members as they become fully independent investigators.”
The program is designed to integrate with other Duke initiatives that train physician-scientists including the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD students), the Lefkowitz Society (clinical residents and fellows), and the Duke Office for Physician-Scientist Development (OPSD).
The next call for submissions will be in spring 2020.