Columbians Take Home Tony Awards, Nemmers Prize in Economics, and More

Columbia News produces a monthly newsletter (subscribe here!) and article series featuring a roundup of awards and milestones that Columbia faculty, staff, and students have received in recent weeks. In this edition, you’ll find awards and milestones from May 23 to June 26, 2024. We will be on hiatus for the month of July, returning on Aug. 22.

If you have an accomplishment you'd like to be considered for inclusion, please email [email protected] with your name, title, school, department, and a link to the relevant award or milestone. 

You can take a look at past accomplishments on our Awards & Milestones page. And you can subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox. 

INSTITUTIONAL

ICAP at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health was awarded $30,000,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the project, "Strengthening Regional, National, and Subnational Institutional Capacities to Sustainably Combat HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)."

FACULTY

Columbians did well at the 2024 Tony Awards on June 16. The musical Suffs, lead produced by Adjunct Assistant Professor and Prince Fellowship alumna Rachel Sussman, and partly developed during Sussman's time in the Prince Fellowship at the School of the Arts, won Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, both for the work of Shaina Taub. Suffs was also produced by Professor of International and Public Affairs Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jill Furman (BUS'97). Read about other Columbia winners here.

ARTS & HUMANITIES

Denise Cruz, chair and professor of the Department of English and Comparative Literature, has received the Society of Columbia Graduates Great Teacher Award. The society's primary mission is to recognize and support great undergraduate teaching at Columbia College and Columbia Engineering. 

Eleanor Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, was awarded the 2024 Lionel Trilling Book Award by Columbia College. The award was established in 1976 in honor of Lionel Trilling (CC 1925, GSAS’38), and is awarded annually to a member of the faculty whose book was published in the previous year and upholds a level of excellence commensurate with Trilling’s legacy.

Sharon Marcus, Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, was awarded the 2024 Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching by Columbia College. The award was established in honor of Mark Van Doren (GSAS 1920), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, playwright, critic, editor, and biographer, as well as a renowned scholar and legendary Columbia faculty member. It recognizes a faculty member’s “humanity, devotion to truth, and inspiring leadership.”

Christopher A.B. Peacocke, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and department chair, has received the Prix Jean Nicod 2024, and will give a series of lectures at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Pamela Smith, Seth Low Professor of History and director of the Center for Science and Society, was awarded the 2024 International Prize for Research in Cultural History by the Hans and Helga Eckensberger Foundation in collaboration with the Herzog August Library. The award honors distinguished researchers who work in the field of cultural history with a focus on the history of knowledge.

MEDICINE & SCIENCE

Jinsy Andrews, associate professor of Neurology, was awarded $45,083,285 over four years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for the project, "Intermediate-sized Expanded Access Protocol for CNM-Au8 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)."

Paul Appelbaum, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law, will receive the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM Service Recognition Award.

Philip De Jager, Weil-Granat Professor of Neurology, was awarded $31,360,905 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for the project, "Defining the effect of Alzheimer pathologies on the aged brain in 3 dimensions."

Maria Diaz, assistant professor of Neurology, received a certificate of achievement as an inaugural member of the Society for Neuro-Oncology and Oxford University Press 2023 Editorial Scholars Program.

Ryan Gaudet, assistant professor of Microbiology and Immunology, was named a 2024 Searle Scholar.

Maureen George, professor at the School of Nursing, was selected by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) to be inducted into the 2024 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. Honorees “embody the collective impact of nursing research on global healthcare.”

Julie Herbstman, professor of Environmental Health Sciences, and Amy Margolis, Suzanne Crosby Murphy Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, were awarded $7,646,645 over two years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for their project, "Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in ECHO II: Impact of environmental exposures on children's health and the co-morbidity of asthma and ADHD."

Despina Kontos, professor of Radiology, received the 2024 Edmée Firth Prize for Outcomes Research in Ovarian Cancer. Her co-investigators are Elisa Konofagou, Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering and professor of Radiology; Jason Wright, Sol Goldman Associate Professor of Gynecologic Oncology; and Shikun Wang, assistant professor of Biostatistics.

Benjamin Lebwohl, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, was awarded $6,888,211 over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for "Evaluation of Novel Technologies to Improve Clinical Management of Celiac Disease: The GLUTECH Trial."

Susan Michaels-Strasser, assistant professor of Epidemiology, was awarded $7,440,000 over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for her project "Strengthening Scale Up of HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment Programs in South Sudan under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)."

Aimee S. Payne, Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Dermatology and chair of Dermatology, was named president of the Society for Investigative Dermatology.

Rebecca Schnall, Mary Dickey Lindsay Professor of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, was awarded $5,335,905 over five years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for her project, "Promoting Viral Suppression through the CHAMPS+ Intervention in the Deep South."

Barbara H. Stanley was recognized posthumously with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Giuseppe Tosto, assistant professor of Neurological Sciences, was awarded $14,231,266 over five years from the National Institute on Aging for the project, "Latino Sequencing Study for AD 30."

ENGINEERING

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, University Professor and Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering, who is renowned for her pathbreaking work in engineering functional human tissue for use in regenerative medicine, has received a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) Investigator Award for an innovative project designed to build entirely new tools for “instructing” and characterizing immune cells.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Seyla Benhabib, senior research scholar and adjunct professor of Law at Columbia Law School; faculty affiliate, Department of Philosophy; and senior fellow, CCCT, has been elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society.

Noel Capon, R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing at Columbia Business School, was honored by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) with a lifetime achievement award at the 2024 SAMA Annual Conference.

Lance Liebman, William S. Beinecke Professor of Law Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Law Institute.

Michael Woodford, John Bates Clark Professor of Political Economy and chair of the Economics Department, is the recipient of the 2024 Erwin Nemmers Prize in Economics, given by Northwestern University. The award recognizes achievement and work of lasting significance in the field of economics.

POSTDOCS & STUDENTS

Five residents in the Department of Psychiatry received recognition from the American Psychiatric Association: Deirdre Caffrey received the Resident Recognition Award; Yaakov Green received the 2024 APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship; Chioma Onyejiaka received the 2024 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship; Tofunmi Oshodi received the SAMHSA-APAF Minority Fellowship; and Maxmoore Potkin received a 2024 APA Public Psychiatry Fellowship. 

Alexander Borsa, PhD student in sociomedical sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, was awarded a research grant from The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy for the project, "Financializing Fertility: Private Equity and the Management of Reproduction."

Cynthia Chai, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences, was selected to receive a 2024 Konishi Neuroethology Research Award from the International Society for Neuroethology. The awards are named in honor of Masakazu (Mark) Konishi, a leader in the neurobiological study of natural behavior, and are intended to promote research by early career investigators.

A Columbia Space Initiative team of Engineering students was awarded second prize in NASA’s 2024 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition Forum, which challenged teams to conceptualize aviation-related system(s) that could be applied to a natural disaster. The team received second place for their project, “AVATARS: Aerial Vehicles for Avalanche Terrain Assessment and Reporting Systems.” 

Columbia Space Initiative's Rocketry team, which designed, built, and launched their hybrid rocket named PleaseGoHigher at the inaugural FAR-OUT competition, won first place in podium presentations and second place in its launch category.