Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences honors students during annual awards ceremony

The Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School recognized student scientists during the 2025 Student Academic Achievement and Leadership Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 29. 

Chancellor Michael F. Collins presented the Chancellor’s Award to PhD candidate Xuhang Li, who is the co-first author on two papers published in Nature in February that describe a significant advance in understanding the complex functions of the metabolic network. Mentored by Marian Walhout, PhD, the Maroun Semaan Chair in Biomedical Research and chair and professor of systems biology, and Lutfu Yilmaz, PhD, associate professor of systems biology, Li will be starting his own lab at Peking University in Beijing after graduation.

Mary Ellen Lane, PhD, the Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Chair in Biomedical Sciences, professor of neurobiology and dean of the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, presented Qiu Yu Judy Huang and Janneke Icso with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Thesis Research, an award given to students whose thesis research has significant impact in their field. 

Huang’s thesis project used cryo-electron tomography, a process in which biological samples are flash frozen, thinned and then imaged through an electron microscope, to study influenza viruses. Huang was mentored by Celia Schiffer, PhD, the Arthur F. and Helen P. Koskinas Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology and chair and professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology, and Mohan Somasundaran, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology. 

Icso worked with Paul Thompson, PhD, the Endowed Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology II, professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology and director of the Program in Chemical Biology, to study the molecular underpinnings of neurodegenerative diseases. More specifically, she used enzyme kinetics, X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and proteomics to probe the function of an enzyme involved in axon degeneration. Icso and Huang will continue to work in UMass Chan labs as postdoctoral researchers. 

Dean Lane’s remarks to the Class of 2025 were centered around public trust and public service. She shared the results of a 2024 study published in Nature Human Behavior that found intellectual humility enhances trust in science.

“When the scientist was perceived to have high intellectual humility, people were more likely to believe the research findings, be open to learning more about the subject and adopt evidence-based recommendations of the work,” Lane said. “What I found most interesting about this work is that the subjects weren’t reacting to ‘science’ as an institution or even ‘scientists’ as a group. They were reacting to an individual scientist. 

“That’s what gives me hope, because it suggests actions that we can take as individuals,” Lane continued. “The world doesn’t always recognize its need for science, but the need never goes away, and I believe that you as scientists can help meet that need. You can model rigorous thinking and ethical action and carry forward a tradition of public service that doesn’t retreat.” 

The following awards were presented at the ceremony: