Student Awards

Department Awards  Each year, MIP recognizes student accomplishments in three areas considered to be highly important in graduate education: academic achievement, teaching and research. The Graduate Program has established student awards in these areas, each in the name of a distinguished former faculty member of this Department at the University of Michigan.

Bean Fellowship for Academic Excellence  This fellowship was made possible by an endowment given by Professor John Bean (former faculty member in the Department) and it is awarded to the second year MIP student who has attained the best academic record during the pre-candidate years.

~Bean Award Winners: 

  • 2023: Jessica Liang & Jennifer Wloszek
  • 2022: Jiaao Su & Lindsey Lammlin
  • 2021: Jessica Maung
  • 2020: Elizabeth Dean
  • 2019: Nicholas Glynos
  • 2018: Alivia Wu
  • 2017: Joseph Starrett
  • 2016: Ian Gonzalez
  • 2015: Andrew Schwartz
  • 2014: Keita Uchida
  • 2013: Surojit Sural
  • 2012: Joanne Garbincius
  • 2011: Jun Young Hong
  • 2010: Abbie Renoux
  • 2009: Joel McDade
  • 2008: Matthew Barnabei
  • 2007: John Petrie

Vander Teaching Award  This award was established in recognition of Professor Arthur Vander, a former member of the departmental faculty and widely known as an outstanding teacher, mentor and scholar. It is awarded each year to an MIP student in recognition of outstanding teaching in the Physiology 201 course, as determined by student evaluations and comments of faculty observers.

~Vander Award Winners: 

  • 2023: Hannah Thompson
  • 2022: Jessica Maung
  • 2021: Ryan Neff
  • 2020: Amanda Gibson
  • 2019: Jonathan Herrera
  • 2018: Kristy Holme & Lindy Jensen
  • 2017: Devika Bagchi
  • 2016: Meggie Hoffman
  • 2015: Tova Berg
  • 2014: Caroline Adams
  • 2013: Kristopher Sugg
  • 2012: Margaret Allison & Gail Gifford
  • 2011: Alexis Carulli
  • 2010: Joel McDade
  • 2009: Jonathan Mowers
  • 2008: Matthew Barnabei
  • 2007: Deepti Nargarkar

Davenport Research Award  This award is named in honor of Dr. Horace Davenport who served as department chair from 1956-1978, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and was renown for his research, teaching, authorship of three best selling textbooks on acid-base chemistry and the physiology of the digestive tract, and leading the department to national prominence. This award is given to the student who has displayed outstanding accomplishment in research as demonstrated by their abstract submitted the Fall Student Research Forum and recent publications. Finalists for the award give an oral platform presentation at the forum and the student who is judged to give the most outstanding research presentation is named the winner of the Davenport Research Award.

~Davenport Award Winners: 

  • 2023: Steve Guzman
  • 2022: Kristy Weaver
  • 2021: Hannah Bell
  • 2020: Hyo Sub choi
  • 2019: Andrew Schwartz
  • 2018: David Bushart
  • 2017: Daniel Triner
  • 2016: Jonathan Gumucio
  • 2015: Amy Sutton
  • 2014: Kristen Ruka
  • 2013: Joel McDade
  • 2010: Asma Al Menhali
  • 2009: Kelli VanDussen
  • 2008: Matthew Hyman
  • 2007: Xiao-wei Chen 

John A. Williams Award for Outstanding Service  This award is to recognize the student who has shown the greatest commitment of time and effort toward service to the department and the scientific community. The award was named the John A Williams Service Award in honor of Dr. Williams service to the department as chair for over 20 years.

~John A. Williams Award Winners:

  • 2023: Nicholas Urban
  • 2022: Sierra Nance
  • 2021: Lindy Jensen
  • 2020: Brenda Cisneros-Larios
  • 2019: Kristy Holme
  • 2018: Ally Cara & Liz Ronan
  • 2017: Devika Bagchi
  • 2016: Joanne Garbincius
  • 2015: Kristen Ruka
  • 2014: Alexis Carulli
  • 2013: Mark Bolinger
  • 2012: Jonathan Mowers
  • 2011: James MacKrell
  • 2010: Jessica Gumerson
  • 2009: Nathan Palpant
  • 2008: Eneida Villanueva
  • 2007: Kelli Van Dussen

Schwartz Innovative Translational Research Award This award was established by the family and friends of Dr. Andrew Schwartz, a MIP PhD program alumni alumnus whose promising career as a biomedical scientist was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 31 in 2022.  Andrew was the winner of the John Bean and Davenport Research Award from the MIP Department and received a Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Rackham Graduate School. After completing his PhD, Andrew pursued a career in translational research at the Novartis Institute. The purpose of the award is to honor the memory of Andrew and recognize the research accomplishments of an MIP graduate student whose research has translational relevance for understanding or treating human disease.

~Andrew Schwartz Award Winners:

  • 2023: Ziyi Meng