Shout-outs: Keivan Stassun (UW alum), Whitney A. Stevens-Sostre and Gabriele Neumann
Keivan Stassun, UW alum (graduating with a doctorate in astronomy from UW–Madison in 2000) who also just earned distinction as a MacArthur Genius, has been awarded a National Medal of Science. Stassun is the Director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation and Professor of Physics & Astronomy, and Professor of Computer Science at Vandebilt University. Read the story about the National Medal of Science honor here: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/autismandinnovation/fcai-director-keivan-stassun-wins-highest-science-award-in-the-us/.
Stassun’s research in astrophysics concerns star evolution and exoplanet discovery. He is responsible for creating two major initiatives aimed at helping underrepresented and neurodiverse students succeed in higher education and employment. He co-founded the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-PhD Bridge Program, an initiative that served as a steppingstone for promising master’s students at the historically Black Fisk University to pursue PhD work at Vanderbilt or other universities. And he founded the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, an initiative that helps autistic and other neurodiverse individuals find and maintain meaningful employment. Participants learn practical work skills and identify their professional strengths. In addition, the Frist Center works with industry scholars and experts to create opportunities and policies that promote inclusion of neurodiverse employees.
Whitney A. Stevens-Sostre, who earned her PhD at UW–Madison in 2023 and is a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. Mrinalini Hoon of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, has been awarded a Hannah Gray Fellowship from Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
As neuroscientist and founder of a group called Black in Biophysics, her graduate work focused on structure-function relationships in the KCNH family of voltage-gated potassium channels.
Previous accolades received by Dr. Stevens-Sostre include being named a Yale Ciencia fellow in 2019.
UW researcher joins ranks of National Academy of Inventors fellows
Gabi Neumann named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
University of Wisconsin–Madison professor Gabriele Neumann has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.
Neumann, a research professor and senior virologist at the Influenza Research Institute in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has spent her career at the forefront of virology and vaccine innovation. With 26 U.S. patents and 70 international ones, her contributions span academia, industry, and global health. Her research has significantly advanced scientific knowledge and saved countless lives, demonstrating the impact of joint research in overcoming global health challenges.
Neumann’s groundbreaking work began during her postdoctoral research under the mentorship of Yoshihiro Kawaoka, director of the Influenza Research Institute and professor of virology in the Pathobiological Sciences Department at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Read the story here: https://innovate.wisc.edu/uw-researcher-joins-ranks-of-national-academy-of-inventors-fellows/