Thank you to all the applicants for the 2013 Sun Valley Young Investigator awards and travel grants! 

Winners of the 2013 Sun Valley Young Investigator Awards

Harold M. Frost Award	Alice L. Jee Award	Under-Represented Minority Award	Osteoarthritis Award
Yohann Bala University of Melbourne	Samir Abdelmagid Northeast Ohio Medical University	Jean de la croix Ndong Vanderbilt University	Merry Ruan Baylor College of Medicine
Julia Chen Columbia University	Qianqian Han Tufts University School of Dental Medicine	Nilsson Holguin Washington University
Eve Donnelly Cornell University	Jason Inzana University of Rochester Medical Center	Patricia Juarez-Camacho Indiana University
Yurong Fei New York University	Kyu Sang Joeng Baylor College of Medicine	Alicia Ortega University of Colorado at Boulder
Ronald Kwon  University of Washington	Julia Kuliwaba University of Adelaide	Thomas Siosi Mbimba Jr.  Kent State University
Sarah McBride  Washington University	Tieshi Li University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Elizabeth Salsibury  Baylor College of Medicine	Kyle Nishiyama Columbia University
Jae Hyuck Shim  Weill Cornell Medical College	Christopher Newman Indiana University
Xiaofang Wang  Baylor College of Dentistry	Joshua Padovano University of Illinois
	Michaela Reagan  Harvard Medical School

 

Any minority candidate (as defined in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions Regulations, 29 C.F.R. Part 1602, i.e. Native American or Alaska native, Asian or Pacific Islander, African-American or Black and Hispanic) with a terminal graduate degree (PhD, MD, DVM) is eligible. Candidates may be in academia, industry, or government as long as their work is related in some manner to scientific research in the broad field of musculoskeletal biology. Candidates of any age or experience level are encouraged to apply.

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Two types of young investigator awards are available to help support travel of students, fellows and junior investigators (i.e. those at or below the level of Assistant Professor).

Students, fellows and young investigators up to and including Assistant Professors who receive this award will have the honor of presenting a poster at the Sun Valley Workshop poster session.

The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) established the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Awards in 2004 to support the Sun Valley Workshop, in which Dr. Frost was an active participant, and to honor his scientific accomplishments in skeletal biology.  These awards of $1500 each will be given to nine young investigators and award winners will present their work from the podium during one of the Sun Valley sessions.  Each will be awarded based on competitive application and review by a committee. Those young investigators who are given an award will present their work from the podium during the Monday evening session.

The ASBMR staff administers the review process, which includes sending the nomination packets to the review panel, arranging the review panel conference call, and sending out the acceptance letters. The ASBMR President and Sun Valley director each select two members to serve on the nomination review panel. The review panel scores each nomination packet and sends their scores to ASBMR staff who will average the scores and rank the nominees. This program is intended to stimulate young investigator participation by providing the opportunity for presentation of their results.

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Participation of Junior Faculty and Students

The Sun Valley Skeletal Tissue Workshop grew out of a training program for students. At recent conferences (since 1998), nearly half (44-48%) of the participants have been students, fellows or junior faculty members. This exceeds earlier conferences in which about one-third of participants were students or junior faculty. As many as 10 travel awards averaging $800 each are provided to students and fellows from the Alice L. Jee Memorial Fund, the Orthopaedic Research Society and the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS). The emphasis on student and junior faculty training has continued to develop over the years.

Besides training, a primary focus of the workshop has been on the interaction of younger and more senior investigators. This is accomplished through several means. First, each year, the Workshop sponsors a volleyball game (and provides refreshments) to generate informal interaction between junior and senior scientists. These games have been highly effective in allowing time for informal exchange in a relaxed and nonthreatening atmosphere. Additional informal opportunities for discussion occur at the welcoming and closing receptions and a mid-week banquet. For the latter, a Children's Party (for age 11 and under) is provided to make it easier for young investigators and their spouses to develop relationships with established investigators.

Contrary to some opinion, the Workshop is not a closed meeting, nor is it by invitation only. The only restriction is in the number of participants, because of the venue. If there are more than 150 applications for attendance, the members of the Advisory Committee (i.e., the chairs of the scientific sessions), based on productivity and currency in the field, will decide in a Gordon Conference style who should attend. Graduate students and fellows will be given preference. The Workshop has never turned down a student, fellow or junior investigator, and especially young clinical investigators, who expressed a desire to attend the Workshop.

At Sun Valley we offer young Investigators the opportunity to have lunch or coffee with a Senior Investigator. It’s a great time for you to ask questions, get advice from the experts and network with your colleagues. 

Alice L. Jee Awards	Under-Represented Minority Awards	Harold M. Frost Awards
Eimear Dolan National University of Ireland	Gabriel Mbalaviele Washington University	Gregory Chang NYU Langone Medical Center
Pierre Eleniste Indiana University	Monique Bethel Indiana University	Anusuya Das University of Virginia
Peng Liu Fritz-Lipmann Institute	Babatunde Ayobami Awodele University of Melbourne	Minoti Hiremath Boise State University
Shane Lloyd Penn State College of Medicine	Sarah Amungongo University of California Davis	Russell Main Purdue University
Gregory Miller Boston University	Rhima Coleman  Hospital for Special Surgery	Margaret A. McNulty Rush University Medical Center
Vaibhav Saini Massachusetts General Hospital		Shu Meng Tufts University
Ramaswamy Sharma UT Health Science Center San Antonio		Simon Tang University of California, San Francisco
		Meina Wang Yale University
		Xianrong Zhang University of Pennsylvania