Eleven NIH-supported researchers, including three intramural scientists, have won the 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award, established in 1996, is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers; each award is for 5 years duration. The awards are intended to recognize and nurture some of the finest investigators who, while early in their research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge.

Dr. Andrew James Griffith

Dr. Susan K. Buchanan

Dr. Marilyn Diaz

The winners for 2002, totaling 57 scientists from eight federal departments, were announced by the White House on May 4. The intramural honorees include: Dr. Andrew James Griffith, acting chief on gene structure and function and acting chief of the hearing section, Division of Intramural Research, NIDCD; Dr. Susan K. Buchanan of the structural biology and cell signaling section, NIDDK; and Dr. Marilyn Diaz of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, NIEHS.

The extramural honorees were: Dr. Dana Boatman, associate professor of neurology and otolaryngology and director, central auditory clinic, departments of neurology and otolaryngology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, NIDCD grantee; Dr. Richard Walker, assistant professor, Oregon Hearing Research Center with a joint appointment in the Vollum Institute, NIDCD grantee; Dr. William Carlezon, assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, NIDA grantee; Dr. David Cummings, assistant professor of medicine, division of metabolism, endocrinology and nutrition, University of Washington, NIDDK grantee; Dr. Kirk W. Deitsch, assistant professor, department of microbiology and immunology, Weill Medical College, Cornell University, NIAID grantee; Dr. Abby Dernburg, assistant professor in residence of cell and developmental biology, department of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley, and staff scientist, department of genome sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NIGMS grantee; Dr. Catherine L. Drennan, assistant professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NIGMS grantee; and Dr. Valery I. Shestopalov, assistant professor of ophthalmology, McKnight Vision Research Center of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, NEI grantee.