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UMMC and the Office of Research send their congratulations to the 2021 Excellence in Research Awards recipients. This year’s honorees all contributed to the Medical Center’s record-breaking funding year.
UMMC and the Office of Research send their congratulations to the 2021 Excellence in Research Awards recipients. This year’s honorees all contributed to the Medical Center’s record-breaking funding year.

Research awards mark faculty, staff funding achievements

Published on Monday, October 25, 2021

By: Karen Bascom

The University of Mississippi Medical Center announced its 2021 Excellence in Research Awards recipients last week, recognizing 17 faculty and staff members who achieved new levels of extramural funding for their research programs during the previous fiscal year.

This year’s honorees, representing four schools and nine academic departments, will receive the bronze, silver or gold-level medallions, in addition to a financial award from the Office of Research.

Since 2000, the Excellence in Research Awards program has recognized investigators who have attracted significant funding to the Medical Center. The award levels are based on the cumulative amount of outside grants and awards each investigator has received for their own original research over the course of their service at UMMC.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Research recognized the recipients through a series of videos distributed through the Medical Center’s research listserv October 18-20.

Dr. Richard Summers
Summers

“Thank you for all your hard work, commitment and ingenuity. You are appreciated, and we look forward to celebrating your accomplishments,” Dr. Richard Summers, associate vice chancellor for research, said in the recording.

This year’s honorees all contributed to UMMC’s record levels of funding for fiscal year 2021. The Medical Center’s $123.5 million from 392 grants, awards and contracts funds innovative research and education programs.

“In a time of great uncertainty, our scientists have stepped up to ensure Mississippians are taken care of during this pandemic,” Summers said. “[They] have shown the importance of a strong research mission to an academic medical center, and to the nation.”

The 2021 Excellence in Research Award recipients are:

Gold Medallion - $1,000,000-$4,999,999

Winners of the 2021 Excellence in Research Gold Medallion.
Dr. Yingjie Chen, professor of physiology and biophysics

Dr. Caroline Compretta, associate professor of preventive medicine

Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, professor of pediatrics

Dr. Nita Maihle, professor of medicine

Dr. Michael Roach, professor of biomedical materials science

Dr. Dustin Sarver, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior

Dr. Joshua Speed, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics

Dr. Melanie Wilson, professor of microbiology and immunology

—  —  — 

Silver Medallion - $500,000-$999,999
Winners of the 2021 Excellence in Research Silver Medallion.

Dr. Michael Griswold, professor of medicine/The MIND Center

Dr. William Hillegass, associate professor of data science

Dr. Daniela Ruedi-Bettschen, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior

Dr. Erin Taylor, instructor of physiology and biophysics

Dr. Douglas Vetter, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences

Dr. Jorge Vidal, associate professor of microbiology and immunology

—  —  —

Bronze Medallion - $250,000-$499,999
Winners of the 2021 Excellence in Research Bronze Medallion.

Chad Blackshear, MS, biostatistician III, data science

Dr. Randall Scott Williamson, assistant professor of biomedical materials science

Dr. Wondwosen Yimer, assistant professor of data science