Sanjay Mishra, MS, PhD, 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. This prestigious award recognizes science journalists, research scientists, and science communicators who have developed creative, original work to communicate issues and advances in science, engineering, and medicine to the public.
The National Academies gave 24 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards in 2023: 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.
Mishra is the coordinator of the Brown University/Lifespan Center for Clinical Cancer Informatics and Data Science (CCIDS) where he promotes research, operation, and education of clinical cancer informatics. He also serves as a coordinator for the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19), where he collects data about patients with cancer who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
In collaboration with hundreds of international researchers, Mishra's research has helped understand the effect of COVID-19 on people with cancer; and has highlighted the racial disparities in healthcare outcomes and access to treatments. Previously, Mishra worked on developing vaccine candidates against Zika and Dengue; and uncovered the evolutionarily conserved role of stress-responding proteins in aging and preventing diseases.
“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,” said Sanjay Mishra, MS, PhD, research program manager at Lifespan Cancer Institute.
The winners will be honored during an invitation-only workshop and recognition event on Jan. 11 and 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.