PROVIDENCE – Sanjay Mishra, research program manager at the Lifespan Cancer Institute, has received the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine in partnership with Schmidt Futures.
The award recognizes science journalists, research scientists and science communicators who, according to a news release.
The National Academies gave out 24 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards this year including nine for science communication by research scientists, nine for science journalists and six for science communicators. Mishra was honored in the “Research Scientist: Early Career” category.
“This award assures me that my peers value my efforts to share the joy of scientific discoveries. This recognition is also very motivational because growing up, English was not my first language. This award reminds me that institutional support exists to popularize science, although academic research is often more celebrated,” Mishra said.
Mishra is the coordinator of the Brown University/Lifespan Center for Clinical Cancer Informatics and Data Science where he promotes research, operation, and education of clinical cancer informatics, according to a news release. Mishra also serves as coordinator for the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium through which he collects data about patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have cancer.
Mishra, who earned his doctoral degree in chemical and physical biology from Vanderbilt University, has collaborated with hundreds of international researchers and his work has helped understand the effect of COVID-19 on people with cancer as well as highlighting racial disparities in health care outcomes and access to treatments. Previously, Mishra worked on developing vaccine candidates against Zika and Dengue and uncovered the evolutionary conserved role of stress-responding proteins in aging and preventing diseases, according to a news release.
Mishra and fellow winners will be honored during an invitation-only workshop and recognition event on Jan. 11 and 12 in Washington, D.C.
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
