Announcing 2024 Excellence in Science Awards

Monday, April 8, 2024
FASEB today announced the recipients of its 2024 Excellence in Science Awards.

Now in its 35th year, FASEB’s Excellence in Science Awards highlight outstanding achievements by women in the biological sciences. The awards are bestowed to women scientists demonstrating not only excellence and innovation in their research fields, but exemplary leadership and mentorship as well. 

“The 2024 FASEB Excellence in Science Award recipients reflect achievements as leaders in the biomedical research community,” says Mary-Ann Bjornsti, PhD, FASEB President and former Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  “Each awardee has demonstrated excellence and innovation in their research field and exemplified a steadfast commitment to future researchers through their mentoring activities.” 

Each recipient is awarded a $5,000 prize and presents a lecture at the annual meeting of a FASEB member society of their choice. 

2024 Excellence in Science Award Recipients

Lifetime Achievement Award: Holly A. Ingraham, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
The FASEB Excellence in Science Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes Holly Ingraham’s pioneering work revealing crucial hormone-responsive nodes in the brain and gut that maintain metabolic, skeletal, and cognitive health in females. Her recent landmark studies are motivating others to address the basic science underlying many female-bias diseases that affect the quality of life for millions of women.

Ingraham is currently the Herzstein Endowed Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is also an active member of three FASEB member societies: American Physiological Society, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, and Endocrine Society.

The award also recognizes Ingraham as a devoted educator and mentor. She has helped shape the careers of countless graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through her guidance and support. She received UCSF’s Lifetime Mentoring Award in 2023, in recognition of the focus and energy she devotes to trainees, many of whom secure fellowship funding, publish impactful and original studies, and obtain positions in academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations. 

Ingraham has also tirelessly advocated for women and has long worked to combat gender disparities in science and medicine. She was instrumental in changing the climate for women faculty at UCSF by increasing the number of women hired beginning in 2018 through data-driven conversations with leadership. All basic UCSF departments have dramatically changed their faculty composition over the last five years.

Mid-Career Investigator Award: Pilar Alcaide, PhD, Tufts University School of Medicine
An experimental pathologist and immunologist, Pilar Alcaide of Tufts University School of Medicine is the recipient of the Mid-Career Investigator Award. She holds multiple roles at Tufts, including Professor of Immunology, Director of the Immunology Graduate Program, and Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor.  

The award recognizes Alcaide’s stellar track record as an eminent scientist who focuses on cardiovascular research and immunology. Her research has not only continued to have a major impact on the study of inflammation and heart disease but has been paradigm-shifting. Her impactful work in the growing field of cardio-immunology has been published in prestigious journals such as Circulation and the Journal of Experimental Medicine and has resulted in continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations.

In addition to her notable research, Alcaide is committed to mentoring and training the next generation of scientists. She has forged a reputation as a role model for women in science, serving on many review panels and committees nationally. She has inspired an ever-growing number of trainees nationally through a variety of roles in the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association, developing numerous sessions for early-career scientists. 

Alcaide’s impact extends beyond her laboratory and into the global scientific arena. She has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences and, coupled with her participation in seminars across renowned institutions, has captivated audiences on a global scale. 

She is an emerging leader within the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), which is a FASEB member society. In 2023, she was elected vice president of ASIP, which puts her into the presidential succession. She will serve as ASIP president in 2025–2026.

Early-Career Investigator Award: Mariana Xavier Byndloss, DVM, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Mariana Xavier Byndloss, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is a creative young scientist whose work links microbiology, immunology, metabolic diseases, and cancer.  

As an early-career investigator, Byndloss’ short career is on a steep upward trajectory. Since joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2018, she has continued to meet challenging goals for pushing the field of intestinal inflammation forward. Her research has uncovered groundbreaking discoveries in intestinal infection and inflammation biology. She has authored more than 70 scientific publications, including some in high-impact journals such as Nature and Science.  

The Early-Career Investigator Award recognizes her innovative discoveries that have become an important focus in inflammatory diseases, as well as her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) activities within and outside Vanderbilt. She has trained an increasing number of women and underrepresented minority students in science already. Her DEI activities include serving as an active preceptor in the Vanderbilt Experimental Research Training Inclusion Community Engagement Skills Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program, as well as co-chair and founding member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation DEI Committee, among others. She is a role-model and sought-after mentor in many DEI programs in which she serves, all of which foster research experiences and career development of students, fellows, and faculty from historically excluded groups.

Byndloss is an active member of the American Association of Immunologists, a FASEB member society. 

More information on FASEB Excellence in Science Awards can be found here.