In the final days of the Biden administration, six Vanderbilt faculty members were among nearly 400 researchers to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Established in 1996, the award is billed by the White House as the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.
Each year, with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy coordinating with participating federal departments and agencies, the awards program typically recognizes around 100 researchers; the Biden White House had not given the awards in previous years, with the consequence that this year’s PECASE count is exceptionally high.
“Congratulations to these six faculty members from across Vanderbilt on having been selected by President Biden for this outstanding award. We’re so proud of them and their accomplishments and excited by all that lies ahead for their research teams,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Executive Vice President for Research, and chief scientific and strategy officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Below are members of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) who were named recipients of PECASE:
Jessica Ancker, PhD, MPH, professor of Biomedical Informatics: Ancker’s research centers on the optimal use of information and information technology to improve health care decision-making, with a strong interest in health disparities and health equity. Her focus includes health numeracy and data communication, human factors in clinical decision support, and health services research, especially the effect of health information technologies on health care quality. Programs include synthesizing evidence about how to present health-related data to patients, and examination of the effect of the abrupt transition to telehealth at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
You Chen, PhD, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics: Chen’s research is broadly concerned with opportunities to optimize health care processes. His research foci include medical data mining and machine learning, natural language processing, multi-site transfer learning, clinical workflow, care team identification, disease progression path modeling, predictive analytics, disease profiling and personalized medicine, hospital readmission and patient length of stay analytics, and health information security and privacy.
Eric Tkaczyk, MD, PhD, associate professor of Dermatology (secondary faculty member in DBMI): From a base in biophotonics for diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases, Tkaczyk’s research seeks to integrate patient care, clinical investigation and technology with applications in dermatology, oncology, hematology and other specialties. Among his research specialties are noninvasive diagnostic technology, 3D imaging, machine learning, artificial intelligence and deep learning.