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Ryan Andrews and Daniel Kramer Receive Carver Trust Graduate Student Award

Ryan Andrews and Daniel Kramer
Ryan Andrews and Daniel Kramer

Ryan Andrews and Daniel Kramer, Ph.D. candidates in Biochemistry, have each been awarded a Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology Graduate Student Award for 2019.  This award is to recognize meritorious performance by a third-year graduate student.  Their nominations made clear how they each embody the qualities necessary to become a top researcher and scientific colleague.

Ryan, whose mentor is Professor Walter Moss, had impressed the committee with his progress and dedication and took special note of his development of two highly useful public databases and his excellent productivity so early in his graduate studies, including co-authorship on a high-impact publication in Nature Scientific Reports amongst others.  In addition, his imminent planned submissions to top journals should promote even broader utilization of the tools he has developed.  Ryan also serves an important leadership role in the BBMB Graduate Learning Community (GLC).

Daniel, whose mentor is Professor Stone Chen, had impressed the Carver award committee with his progress and dedication in his graduate research, and took special note of his co-authorship on a high-impact Developmental Cell paper and his important contributions to his mentor’s successful MIRA Award.  In addition, they were impressed by his contribution to the department’s teaching mission and his various service contributions, including an important leadership position in the BBMB GLC.

Ryan and Daniel join these previous research award recipients:

  • Ryan Nett (2015)
  • Alan Culbertson (2016)
  • Hanna Loving (2017)
  • Jacob Roberts (2018)

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust’s initial $7.5 million investment in BBMB in 2012 has supported and continues to support the recruiting and retention of excellent faculty and staff, recruiting and supporting students, enhancing research space and equipment, and providing strong educational and research experiences for our students.  In addition to research awards for graduate students, the Carver Trust award has supported the BBMB Graduate Learning Community (GLC) and awards to recruit high-quality applicants to the Biochemistry and Biophysics graduate programs.  The Carver Trust commitment of more than $3.5 million this spring to enable the purchase of a state-of-the-art cryo-transmission electron microscope equipped with a direct electron detector will help advance the second phase of the Iowa State University Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology’s Initiative in Biomolecular Structure.