Tony Awards, Weston International Award, 40 Under 40 in Cancer Research, 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 days. In this edition, you’ll find awards and milestones from May 29 to June 25, 2025.

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. 

ALUMNI

At the 2025 Tony Awards on June 8, Columbia producers took home three of the night’s biggest awards: Kate Cannova (SOA’13), Jamie Forshaw (SOA’09), and David Manella (SOA’18), co-produced Sunset Boulevard (Best Musical Revival); Ali Daylami (SOA’24) co-produced Maybe Happy Ending (Best New Musical); and Aaron Glick (SOA Prince Fellow’13) co-produced Purpose (Best New Play). Read about Columbia’s 2025 Tony Award winners and nominees here. 

FACULTY

ARTS & HUMANITIES

Lori Flores, Professor of History, received the International Labor History Association’s 2024 Book-of-the-Year Award for the best book of working-class history Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19.

Leslie Jamison, Associate Professor of Writing in School of the Arts, won the 2025 Weston International Award, which honors the career achievement of an international author whose body of nonfiction work, written in English or widely available in translation, has advanced our understanding of the world.

MEDICINE & SCIENCE

Andrea Califano, Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, received the Stanley P. Reimann Honor Award, the highest distinction from Fox Chase Cancer Center, for his transformative contributions to cancer research.

Alvaro Curiel-Garcia, Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine, received the 40 Under 40 in Cancer Research award from the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care. The award recognizes the contributions being made across the field of cancer by rising stars and emerging leaders under the age of 40.

Dawn Hershman, Witten Family Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology, received the 2025 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

Norman J. Kleiman, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was recognized at the 2025 Failla Memorial Dinner and Lecture for his radiological research. The annual event is cosponsored by the Greater New York Chapter of the Health Physics Society and the Radiological and Medical Physics Society of New York.

Two teams at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York to develop next-generation, personalized cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Aimee Payne,Herbert and Florence Irving Professor and Chair of Dermatology, will lead a project to develop cell therapies that eliminate harmful cells in patients with pemphigus, myasthenia gravis, and other autoimmune diseases. Catherine Spina, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, and Jeremy Worley, Assistant Professor of Systems Biology, lead a team that is working to adapt chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy for the treatment of solid tumors.

ENGINEERING

Santiago Correa, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, was selected as one of 10 2025 Beckman Young Investigator Awardees. These researchers exemplify the foundation's mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of science research. 

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Sean Gregory (JRN’02), Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism, received a New York Press Club Award for best national sports feature story of 2024. He won for this profile of Caitlin Clark for Time.

Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor, was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania.

The Division of Social Science recognizes the 2025 recipients of the Division of Social Science Award for Excellence and Commitment to Teaching. The four winners are Nikhar Gaikwad, Assistant Professor of Political Science; Sunil Gulati, Michael K. Dakolias Senior Lecturer of Economics; John Pemberton, Associate Professor of Anthropology; and A. Tunç Şen, Assistant Professor of History.

Hernandez Stroud, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, was named a 2025 Trailblazer in Higher Education by City & State New York.

POSTDOCS & STUDENTS

Chloe Barlow (JRN’24) and Astrid Useche (JRN’24) won “Best Short Documentary” at the People’s Film Festival in Harlem for their documentary “On Our Block,” which highlights the work of Columbia’s Center for Justice.

Director Alexander Molochnikov (SOA’25) and Producer Jean Chapiro (SOA’25) won two BAFTA Student Awards for their film Extremist: Best Live Action and Special Jury Prize. 

Ama Munkhbayar (GS'24) was named a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholar and will pursue a Master’s degree in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford, focusing on the intersection of gender, education, and social mobility. 

Columbia Journalism School, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center, announced the recipients from the Class of 2025 of Pulitzer Center Fellowships: Michele Calamaio (JRN’25), Chris Caurla (JRN’25), Mariana Hernández Ampudia (JRN’25), Anna Oakes (JRN’25), Deep Vakil (JRN’25), Luisa Barone (JRN’25), Iona Horton (JRN’25), Claudia Rosel (JRN’25), and Johnny Sturgeon (JRN’25). The graduates will use the grants to pursue in-depth projects on underreported issues of global importance.

STAFF

Romina Quezada Morales, Program and Outreach Manager in the Institute of Latin American Studies, was designated the 2024 UNESCO-Juan Bosch Prize laureate for the Promotion of Social Science Research in Latin America and the Caribbean for her doctoral work, Indigenous Participation in Global Education and the Indigenous Navigator in Bolivia.