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Madeline Shea honored with award

Date: Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Madeline SheaMadeline A. Shea, PhD, professor of biochemistry and director of the FUTURE in Biomedicine Program, will receive the 2018 Emily M. Gray Award from the Biophysical Society for her outstanding contributions to biophysics education. She will be honored at the Society’s 62nd Annual Meeting at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Feb. 17 to 21, 2018.

Shea was nominated for the award by Dorothy Beckett, PhD, former president of the Society, and the nomination was supported by Amy Lee, PhD, assistant dean for research in the Carver College of Medicine. Lee, who is also a professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, noted in her nomination letter that Shea has “continuously set new standards of excellence for teaching in the classroom and the research laboratory, developed novel educational methods, promoted scientific outreach statewide and nationally, attracted new students to biophysics, and fostered an environment that is contagiously optimistic about education in biophysics.”

Lee cited the FUTURE in Biomedicine Program as an example of Shea’s innovation in education. FUTURE stands for Fostering Undergraduate Talent – Uniting Research in Education, and the program brings faculty and student pairs from primarily undergraduate institutions throughout our state to a UI research laboratory for a summer to conduct a research project together. Started in 2009, this program has hosted 39 first-time faculty fellows from 19 colleges, and more than half of the faculty have pursued long-term, multi-year scientific collaborations that expose additional students to cutting-edge research, help promote the teaching of current methods and findings in their home classrooms and lead to joint research grants and publications.

The Biophysical Society, founded in 1958, is a professional, scientific society established to encourage development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics.