The inaugural Shu Chien Early Career Award competition was held on November 23, 2020. This award is intended to foster the development and promotion of pre-tenured faculty across the UC system and to stimulate inter-UC-Campus activities between BME programs. The BIC plans to hold this competition at the annual UC systemwide BME symposium each year. Each of the 10 departments tenders their most promising pre-tenured candidate and the nominee’s CV and abstract of their most compelling research project is distributed to the awards committee.

The three top candidates for the 2020 competition were Dr. Stephanie Seidlit (UCLA), Timothy Downing (UCI) and Jamal Lewis (UCD). This was a diverse field including female and African American candidates who competed in the competition. Each candidate presented a 15-minute talk that addressed a single important question that drives their research program, including a cogent description of their strategy and its impact on the biomedical field. After each talk, a robust 5-minute question and answer session followed. Dr. Stephanie Seidlit received the inaugural Shu Chien Early Career Award, with Timothy Downing and Jamal Lewis as runner-ups.

2020 Finalists