Lab Heroes 2017 Winners
The Lab Heroes Awards were launched with a very specific goal - to recognise and give back to the unsung champions of Life Sciences.
Scientists in labs across the world were nominated for a whole host of reasons - from dedication to their research to support of their colleagues. We’ve been humbled to see the level of appreciation evident in each nomination.
Lab Hero 2017 winner
It is, therefore, our great pleasure to announce that the winner of the Lab Heroes Award 2017 is Kimberley Evans. With an amazing seven nominations from colleagues working within the Stem Cell Institute, Kimberley was acknowledged for her hard work and dedication in her role as Lab Manager at Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, UK.
Ragnhildur Thora Karadottir, (Wellcome Trust - MRC Stem Cell Institute) said:
“I nominate Kimberley (Kim) for a lab hero as she is there for everyone in the lab. She helps people out with their experiments, putting others before herself. Particularly helpful for students both as a teacher for experimental research but also for psychological support -often needed. She really goes over and above expectations to help lab members get their papers published. She heroically stays into late hours to get things done for submission of papers and grants. Similarly, with thesis submission she also stays on to help with printing, reading over chapters for spell checking and providing comfort to reduce the stress levels often associated with thesis submission. In addition to all this, she is an exceptional researcher in her own right - an excellent example that one can be excellent in research as well take time to help others. A better team member is hard to find. She really pushes forward the success of her lab colleagues without seeking the fame for it."
Kimberley will receive $2000 Hello Bio vouchers, plus a $1000 travel grant.
Read our interview with Kimberley to find out what makes her so special!
The Runners up
As well as our main Lab Heroes winner, two runners up will receive $500 Hello Bio vouchers, plus a $500 travel grant, and a Hello Bio goody bag. The runners up are…
Vanessa Charrier (UMR-INSERM 1215, France), who was nominated for her dedication to her research and eagerness to learn.
Nora Abrous, (Neurocenter Magendie, UMR-INSERM 1215, France), said:
“It is my great pleasure to write this letter in support of Vanessa Charrier’s application for the Lab Hero Award 2017. I have been working with Vanessa for many years now so I had many opportunities to appraise her qualities. Driven by an eagerness to learn and develop new methodological tools, as well as a fervor to learn and understand the principles governing brain function, Vanessa then moved to another lab to geta PhD training on locomotion in salamanders using electrophysiological methods. After defending her PhD, she obtained a tenured senior position in my lab in 2015, and has been working with me since. She has rapidly became a vital element of my lab: not only is she in charge of organizing and managing the lab, and of training new comers to GLP, but she also develops her own research project that combines her expertise in stereotactic administration, immunohistochemistry, patch clamp electrophysiological recordings, and behavior, expertises that she is the only one to possess in the lab.”
Read our interview with Vanessa to find out more about her.
Pinggan Li, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, who was nominated for being an integral member of the lab and truly hitting the ground running with some complex research.
Nour al-Muhtasib (the Vicini Lab, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA) said:
"Pinggan (Jennifer) is a true asset to the lab! She has only recently joined our lab, but she is already an integral member. She hit the ground running and learned as many new techniques as she can so she can help everyone in the lab. Pinggan makes herself available to help everyone in the lab. She makes solutions, checks subjects and assists in starting experiments. Moreover, she does all of this without being asked! Upon joining the lab, she started on a project with a fellow PhD student. They are looking at the role of microglia in a subtype of seizures. The data analysis she has to complete is complex and difficult. Despite that she learned it in a week and is doing it much faster than anticipated. Upon completion of this project she will be an author on the publication. I am very glad that Pinggan has joined our lab and she truly is a lab hero! "
The standard of entry was so high that the judges have allocated some additional prizes to:
- Bart Nieuwenhuis, (John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, UK)
NOMINATED BY: VESELINA PETROVA, JOHN VAN GEEST CENTRE FOR BRAIN REPAIR, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, UK - Masahiro Otsu, (School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK)
NOMINATED BY: MUHAMMED RASSUL, FULTON LAB AND CHLOE THOMAS, NEUROSCIENCE AND OPHTHALMOLOGY LAB - Kate Fisher (University of Manchester)
NOMINATED BY: NICOLA CORBETT, HOOPER LAB - Hannah Walker (Cancer Research Unit, University of York)
NOMINATED BY FIONA FRAME, CANCER RESEARCH UNIT - Andrew Beekman, (School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia)
NOMINATED BY LUCKA BIBIC
You have told us who your lab heroes are, and we have found out that you work with some truly amazing people, who very clearly make a great contribution to lab life. But heart-felt congratulations to everyone who was nominated - we hope you feel proud that you are so valued by your colleagues. And I would also like to add a huge thank you to those of you that took the time to nominate your special colleagues - telling someone how much they are appreciated can make a world of difference! Sam Roome PhD, Director of Marketing, Hello Bio
You can view all of the nominations for the Lab Heroes Awards 2017, and who nominated them on the gallery.
