Awards & Recognitions

Two Ph.D. students, Ming-Qi Yan (Year 3) and Yiran Song (Year 4), from Drs. Yi-Ping Li and Wei Chen’s lab, have received the prestigious ASBMR Young Investigator Award at the 2025 annual meeting of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) held in Seattle (September 5–8, 2025).

The ASBMR Young Investigator Award recognizes young investigators who submit top-ranking abstracts to the ASBMR Meeting. This highly competitive honor is awarded to the top 50 abstracts selected from approximately 1,200 submissions worldwide. Each awardee receives a $1,000 honorarium. The Department congratulates the two students and their mentors for this achievement.

Dr. Chiung-Kuei Huang has been awarded a new five-year R01 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), with full support for both direct and indirect costs. The grant will commence on May 2, 2025. We extend our congratulations to Dr. Huang on this significant achievement.

The Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department congratulates Drs. Tong Wu and Jinqiang Zhang for winning a competitive renewal of an R01 grant, and a new R01 grant, respectively.  Both grants are awarded by NCI and have a term of 5 years with all direct and indirect costs supported, starting this January and April, respectively.

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is pleased to welcome Dr. Akannsha Singh, who joined the faculty in October 2024 as an Instructor. Dr. Singh completed her residency training in Surgical Pathology and Cytopathology at Tulane University, where she was honored with the Nina Dhurandhar, M.D. Cytopathology Award in 2021. She went on to complete a Cytopathology Fellowship at Tulane in 2022, gaining extensive experience in diagnostic interpretation and fine needle aspiration biopsies.

Brady Jin-Smith, an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Liya Pi's lab was recently named a recipient for the 2024 Goldwater Scholarship, one of the oldest and most prestigious government awards for research in the sciences. As the only recipient in the state of Louisiana, Brady outshined other candidates with his proven track record for scientific brilliance. He has published three times (one first author) during his two years at Tulane and was awarded the 2023 Histochemical Society Capstone Grant (1 of 5 internationally awarded recipients) for his research in aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme dynamics in liver cancer. During the summer, Brady leads cyclic immunofluorescence research in colorectal cancer at the Knight Cancer Institute of Oregon Health & Science University. After graduating a year early, he plans to pursue an MD/PhD and continue his research endeavors in noninvasive tumor detection modalities.

The Pathology Department congratulates Dr. Chiung-Kuei Huang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology, for being awarded a 5-year R01 grant for a total of  $2,114,669  (direct and indirect cost) from the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. His project titled “TET1 in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease development” starts on Feb 1, 2024, where his research focus will be to determine the role of DNA modification through TET1 in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The Pathology Department congratulates Dr. Gang Liu, who became an instructor in July this year, for receiving the 2023 George K. Michalopoulos Junior Faculty Scholar Award from the American Society of Investigative Pathology (ASIP). ASIP is one of the oldest societies devoted to the investigation of the mechanisms of diseases and publishes The American Journal of Pathology. The award will be presented to Dr. Liu in the 2023 ASIP meeting on Oct 23.

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is proud to recognize Dr. Di Tian and the COVID Testing Team for receiving the prestigious Tulane Spirit Award, presented by President Michael Fitts. This honor highlights their unwavering dedication and exceptional contributions to Tulane University and the greater New Orleans community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Established by President Fitts, the Tulane Spirit Award celebrates employees who embody the values and character that define the Tulane spirit. Recipients are recognized for their extraordinary generosity, willingness to go above and beyond job requirements, and their strong sense of community. Faculty and staff honored with this award exemplify positivity, collaboration, creativity, and genuine care for others while advancing the mission of Tulane.

Through his leadership and commitment, Dr. Tian has not only strengthened Tulane’s response to the pandemic but also demonstrated the true spirit of service and community that this award represents.