Associate Professor Mark Levin has won the 2023 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grantee Award.
Each year, Bristol-Myers Squibb, a leading biopharmaceutical company, selects an early-career principal investigator to recognize their significant contributions to the field of synthetic, organic, or bio-organic chemistry. The Unrestricted Grantee Award is designed to honor academic research and encourage further investigation with an endowment of $150,000. Levin learned he had been selected at a ceremony this past June.
Additionally, Jisoo Woo, who works as part of the Levin Group, was selected as this year’s winner of the 2023 BMS Graduate Fellowship for his achievements in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. The award comes with an endowment of $40,000.
Woo acknowledged his appreciation, saying, “Being awarded this fellowship reminded me that there are people out there who also found my research topics interesting and promising.”
This is not the first time a UChicago professor and student have won BMS awards, but it may be the first year both awards have been granted to a graduate student and their Advisor. Last year, Rui Zhang from the Dong Group won the fellowship, and in 2010, the Unregistered Grant Award went to Professor Scott Snyder.
Woo, who is entering his fourth year of study, used his recent contributions from a Levin Group publication in Science as part of his fellowship application. When news of the award arrived, it brought some much-needed relief.
“Synthetic organic chemistry, my research focus, is inherently experiment-heavy, often requiring fancy equipment and chemicals,” said Woo. “This fellowship will help lower the financial hurdle for me so that I can design my own experiments more freely and creatively.”
For Woo, sharing the spotlight with Levin is welcome company. “Mark is not only a fantastic PI who guided me through exciting research projects and the fellowship applications, but he is also my career role model and an inspiration for the type of scientist I should ultimately become.”
Levin and Woo will present at a symposium next year as part of the award.