Awards
The Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award
Graduate thesis advisors in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics are asked to nominate outstanding BMCB graduate students who have just completed their 3rd or 4th year, will be in residence for at least one more year and have made substantial progress on their dissertation research. The nominated student must possess excellent scientific and personal communication skills and be able to present his/her research to both specialists and non-specialists, including members of the donor family. The award is in the range of $20,000 each year and can be held only once. The student may use the funding for salary, to travel to a conference, purchase a computer and/or research supplies/equipment, as negotiated with the major professor and as approved by the Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
The George P. Hess Travel Award
Graduate thesis advisors from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics are asked to nominate outstanding BMCB graduate students who have just completed their 3rd or 4th year, will be in residence for at least one more year and have made substantial progress on their dissertation research for this award in honor of George Hess. Prof George Hess was on the Cornell faculty from 1956 until his death in 2015. Prof Hess was a world leader in understanding how enzymes work. He developed ultra-fast methods to follow catalyzed reactions of enzymes in solution, and later fast methods to follow reactions of proteins in biological membranes. His chemistry background helped him to invent new types of dyes that reported on reactions with sub-millisecond resolution.
The student must possess excellent scientific and personal communication skills and be able to present his/her research to both specialists and non-specialists. This travel award (preferably for a national or international conference) is for $500.00 and can be held only once.
Calvo Teaching Award
Both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of MBG each make one award annually to a graduate student for excellence in teaching in a MBG related course. The Associate Chair of MBG solicits nominations from faculty of their top teaching assistant of the past year.
The LPS Award
Established by Frank Meleca, founder of the Laboratory Product Sales Company, which sells a variety of products to research labs like those in BMCB. This award is given each year to a BMCB student (and a similar award to a GGD student) who is first author on what is judged to be the “best” paper published in the previous calendar year. All BMCB grad students are eligible, including those who have finished their PhD and left Cornell. The award is $500 in cash, and the winner has his/her name engraved on a plaque in the front office. Next to the plaque is a framed list of all papers first-authored by BMCB students in that year.
Wellnitz Award
The Wellnitz Award is a yearly prize for the best paper first authored (or co-first authored) by a GGD graduate student in the previous calendar year.