Awards – Scientific Sessions
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center | New Orleans, Louisiana
Congratulations to the 2025 Awardees
2025 Presidential, Distinguished Scientist, and Opening Session Awardees
Basic Research Prize:
Peter Tontonoz, MD, PhD
Los Angeles, California
Clinical Research Award:
Barbara Riegel, PhD, RN, FPCNA, FHFSA, FAHA, FAAN
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Population Research Award:
Daniel Lackland, MSPH, DrPh, FAHA
Charleston, South Carolina
Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award:
Emelia Benjamin, MD, ScM, FAHA
Boston, Massachusetts
Research Achievement Award:
Judith Hochman, MD, FAHA
New York, New York
Chairman's Award:
Amit Khera, MD, MSc, FAHA
Dallas, Texas
- Donna K. Arnett, PhD, MSPH, FAHA
Columbia, South Carolina - Christie M. Ballantyne, MD, FAHA
Houston, Texas - Daniel P. Kelly, MD, FAHA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Steven E. Lipschultz, MD, FAHA
Buffalo, New York - Sanja Rajagopalan, MD, FAHA
Cleveland, Ohio - Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, MS, PhD, FAHA
Bronx, New York
Joseph A. Vita Award
Fátima Rodriguez, MD, MPH, FAHA
Stanford, California
Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award
Megan McLaughlin, MPH, MD
San Francisco, California
Council Awards for Scientific Sessions 2025
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
- George Lyman Duff Memorial Lecture
- Mary G. Sorci-Thomas, PhD, FAHA
- Russell Ross Memorial Lectureship in Vascular Biology
- Kathryn J. Moore, PhD, FAHA
- Sol Sherry Distinguished Lecture in Thrombosis
- Saskia Middeldorp, MD, PhD
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
- George E. Brown Memorial Lecture
- Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, FAHA
- Thomas W. Smith Memorial Lecture
- Jiang Chang (JC), MD, PhD, FAPS
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
- Kenneth D. Bloch Memorial Lecture Vascular Biology
- Stephen Chan, MD, PhD, FAHA
- Dickinson W. Richards Memorial Lecture
- Judith S. Hochman, MD, FAHA
Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (CVRI)
- Charles T. Dotter Memorial Lecture
- Akhilesh Keshav Sista, MD, FAHA, FSIR
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
- William W. L. Glenn Lecture
- Michael Mack, MD
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
- James B. Herrick Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cardiology
- Christopher B. Granger, MD, FAHA
- Laennec Clinician Educator Lecture
- Biykem Bozkurt, MD, PhD, FAHA
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
- Katharine A. Lembright Award and Lecture
- Cheryl R. Himmelfarb, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA, FPCNA
- Kathleen A. Dracup Distinguished Lecture Exemplary Career in Mentoring Award
- Laura Lucia Hayman, PhD, MSN, FAAN, FAHA, FPCNA, FSBM
Council on Epidemiology and Prevention (EPI)
- Ancel Keys Memorial Lecture
- Emelia Benjamin, MD, ScM, FAHA
Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health (LCH)
- Robert I. Levy Memorial Lecture
- Christopher Gardner, PhD, FAHA
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
- T. Duckett Jones Memorial Lecture
- Raman Krishna Kumar, MD, FAHA
- William J. Rashkind Memorial Lecture
- E. Dean McKenzie, MD
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
- GPM and EPI Mid-Career Research Award and Lecture
- Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MMSc, FAHA
ATVB Distinguished Achievement Award in Thrombosis
- Edward M. Conway, MD, PhD
BCVS Distinguished Achievement Award
- Jennifer E. Van Eyk, PhD, FAHA
CLCD Distinguished Achievement Award
- Amit Khera, MD, MSc, FAHA, FACC, MASPC
CVSA Distinguished Achievement Award
- Joseph Woo, MD, FACS, FACC, FAHA
GPM Distinguished Achievement Award
- Jasmine Luzum, PharmD, PhD, FHFSA, FAHA
QCOR Distinguished Achievement Award
- John A. Spertus, MD, MPH, FAHA
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
- ATVB Special Recognition Award in Arteriosclerosis
- Nicholas J. Leeper, MD
- ATVB Special Recognition Award in Thrombosis
- Scott L. Diamond, PhD
- ATVB Special Recognition Award in Vascular Biology
- Hanrui Zhang, MB, PhD, FAHA
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
- 3CPR Best Abstract Award
- Zhijian Wu, MD, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
- CVSN Best Abstract Award
- Yashika Sharma, PhD, RN
- CVSN Clinical Article of the Year Award
- Jennifer K. Peterson, PhD, APRN-CNS, CCNS, FAHA
- CVSN Excellence in Clinical Practice Award
- Skye Coote, NP, MN, BN, CCRN, ANVP-BC, NVRN-BC, ASC-BC
- CVSN Marie Cowan Promising Early Career Investigator Award
- Meghan Reading Turchioe, PhD, MPH, RN, FAHA
- CVSN Mathy Mezey Excellence in Aging Award
- Quin E. Denfeld, PhD, RN, FAHA
- CVSN Research Article of the Year Award
- Nancy A. Pike, PhD, CPNP, FAHA
- CVSN Stroke Article of the Year Award
- Francesco Petrosino, PhD, MSN, RN
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
- CVSA Surgery and Anesthesiology Mentoring Award
- Jerrold Henry Levy, MD, FAHA, FCCM
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
- Laennec Master Clinician Award
- Roxana Mehran, MD, FAHA
- Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award
- Samia Mora, MD, FAHA
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
- GPM Medal of Honor
- James Ware, PhD, MRCP
- GPM Mentoring Award
- Sharlene M. Day, MD, FAHA
Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR)
- QCOR Outstanding Lifetime Acheivement Award
- Michael S. Lauer, MD
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
- Outstanding Research Award in Pediatric Cardiology
- Andrew D. Spearman MD
- Young Hearts Meritorious Achievement Award
- Sarah D. de Ferranti, MD, MPH, FAHA
- Young Hearts Visiting Faculty Career Development Award
- Jane W. Newburger, MD, MPH, FAHA
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
- Elaine W. Raines Early Career Investigator Award
- Dominique M. Boucher, MSc
- Sujin Lee, MD, MS
- Daniel Y Li, MD
- Lingfeng Luo, PhD
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
- Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Basic Science Research Prize for Early Career Investigators
- Hanqiang Deng, PhD
- Sumeet A. Khetarpal, MD, PhD
- Xisheng Li
- Anis Hanna, MD
- Yu-Sheng Yeh, PhD, RD
- Melvin L. Marcus Early Career Investigator Award in Cardiovascular Sciences
- Abraham L. Bayer, PhD
- Jonghyeuk Han, PhD
- Masaki Hashimoto, MD, PhD
- Mark Emile Pepin, MD, PhD
- Saymon Tejay, PhD
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
- Cournand and Comroe Early Career Investigator Award
- Madelyn Blake, BS
- Jingbo Dai, PhD
- Rafael Sobrano Fais, PhD
- Yinan Shi, PhD
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
- Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia Early Career Investigator Abstract Award
- Ema Arai
- Benjamin Smood, MD, MS
- Vivien Thomas Early Career Investigator Award
- Kelsey Muir, MD
- Bo Chang Brian Wu, MD
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
- Martha N. Hill Early Career Investigator Award
- Avery Bechthold, PhD, RN
- Yuling Chen, PhD
- Karina Kraevsky, PhD, RN
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
- Laennec Fellow in Training (FIT) Clinician Award
- Leonard Chiu, MD, MS
- Simrat Dhaliwal, MD
- Elise Fraser, MD
- Jonathan Labin, MD
- Yash Maniar, MD
- Samuel A. Levine Early Career Clinical Investigator Award
- Ozan Unlu, MD, MBI
- Julian S. Haimovich, MD
- Neil Keshvani, MD
- Aniruddh Patel, MD
- Albert J. Rogers, MD, MBA, FAHA
- Quest Diagnostics Early Career Investigator Award for Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine Research
Sponsored by Quest Diagnostics Center of Excellence for Cardiometabolic Testing at Cleveland Heart Lab- Rohan Kankaria, MD
- Mohammadreza Naderian, MD, MPH
- Matthew J. O'Neill, MD, PhD
- Shyon Parsa, MD
- Libor Pastika, MBChB, MSc
Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (CVRI)
- Melvin Judkins Early Career Clinical Investigator Award
- Takashi Fujiwara, PhD
- El-Moatasem Gabr, MD, MSc
- Jamie Kane
- Awais Sheikh, MBChB
- Constantin-Cristian Topriceanu, MD
Council on Epidemiology and Prevention
- Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award for Early Career Investigators
- Joseph Barker, MRCP, MRes
- Erika Teresa Beidelman, PhD
- Theresa Marie Boyer, MS, MSPH
- Lovedeep Singh Dhingra, MBBS, MHS
- Kelvin Supriami, MD, MMSc
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
- Genomic and Precision Medicine Early Career Investigator Award
- Ezim Ajufo, MD
- Jacqueline S. Dron, PhD
- Anna Kirillova
- Ryo Kurosawa, MD, PhD
- Ree Lu, MD
Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health
- Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Early Career Investigator Award
- Zainali Chunawala, MD
- Sudheesha Perera, MD, MPH, ScM
- Fenglei Wang, PhD
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
- Young Hearts Early Career Investigator Award
- Murad Almasri, MD
- Brittany Balint, PhD
- Asaad G. Beshish, MD
- Rebecca Delaney, PhD
- Dana Gal, MD
Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD)
- Jay D. Coffman Early Career Investigator Award
- Dunpeng Cai, PhD
- Kevin Mangum, MD, PhD
- Tammy Tran Nguyen, MD, PhD
- Shuai Yuan, PhD
Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR)
- QCOR Early Career Investigator Abstract Award
- Arya Aminorroaya, MD, MPH
- Ryan A. Coute DO
- Sérgio Decker, MD, MSc
- Zaib Hussain, MD, MPH
- Jay B. Lusk, MD, MBA
Award applicants must have submitted an abstract to Scientific Sessions 2025. Your abstract control number will be required to complete the award application.
Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR)
- 3CPR Junior Investigator Travel Grant
- Shreya Sangam, PharmD, PhD
- Haopu Yang, MD PhD
- Jonah D. Garry, MD, MSCI
- Kelsey Holbert, MD
- Jenna Mendelson
- Tianhao Liu
Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB)
- ATVB Scientific Sessions Travel Grants for Early Career Investigators
- Anamika Gangwar, PhD
- Binu Prakash, PhD
- Dan Pistritu, MD
- Mohammad Reza Hatamnejad, MD, MPH
- Himani Thakkar, PhD
- Ishita Kathuria, B. Pharm
- Julia Bertazzo, MD
- Mohammed Ammar, MD, MSc, MMSc
- Mugdha Padalkar
- Meng Zhang
- Bandana Singh, PhD
- Soumya Krishnan. PhD
- Tiffany Bellomo, MD
- Vinnyfred Vincent
- Xiujuan Zhang, PhD
- Ziyang Liu, PhD
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
- BCVS Abstract Travel Grant
- Razoan Al Rimon, MS
- Anushree Aneja
- Ashley Zuniga
- Ayushi Sood
- Bijay Guragain, PhD
- Abigail Doku, MS
- Gillian Gallagher
- Hina Lateef Nizami, PhD
- Honghai Liu, PhD
- Yangfan Jia, PhD
- Katrin Kalies, PhD
- Kazuma Handa, MD
- Keaton Minor
- Mahmoud Elbatreek, PhD
- Mario Maalouf, MD
- Mamata Hiraman Chaudhari
- Oluwafolajimi Adesanya, MBBS, MPH
- Mariam Oueis
- Raihan Kabir, ScM
- Georgios Siokatas, MSc
- Akshatha N. Srinivas, MS, PhD
- Yajing Zhang, PhD
- BCVS International Travel Grant
- Dongmei Zhong, PhD
- Yingxi Li
Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (CVRI)
- CVRI Early Career Investigator Travel Grant
- Parag Bawaskar
- Brian Zhou
- Carlos Alberto Campello Jorge, MD
- Prerna Singh
- Gabrielle Gershon
- Jaret Barr
Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia (CVSA)
- CVSA Abstract Travel Grant
- Jorin Hanson
- Naritomo Nishioka, MD, PhD
- Ruimei Zhou, MD
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
- CVSN Early Career Research Travel Grants
- Cristina Cabrera-Mino, RN
- Christopher M. Smith, PhD, MSN, RN, GCQM
- Jung A "Chloe" Kang, PhD, RN, AGACNP-BC, AGCNS-BC
- Sueyeon Lee, PhD, RN
- Thitinan Duangjina, PhD, RN
- Wan-chin Kuo, PhD, RN
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
- GPM Abstract Travel Grant
- Pauline Brochet, PhD
- Guilherme Rocha, MD, MSc
- Nancy Manchanda, PhD
- Spencer Flynn, MD
- GPM International Travel Grant
- Deepa Selvi Rani, PhD
- Paloma Jordà, MD, PhD
Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts)
- Young Hearts Abstract Travel Grant
- Joseph Starnes, MD, MPH
- Sydney Rooney, MD
Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR)
- QCOR Early Investigator Travel Grant
- Keisuke Usuda
- Christopher Robinson
- Gaëlle Romain, PhD
- Hoang Nhat Pham, MD
- Lily G. Bessette, MS
- Geoffroy A. Napon, MD
- Itsuki Osawa, MD
- Shubhadarshini Pawar, MBBS, MPH
- Shuqi Zhang, PhD, MS
- Muhammad Muhammad Thahim, MBBS
Award applicants are not required to have an abstract submission to apply for these Scientific Sessions 2025 awards.
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS)
- BCVS Travel Grant
- Abou Bakr Salama
- Allan John Barcena
- Qianqian Ding
- Stephanie Kereliuk
- Xiao Xiao
Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD)
- CLCD Travel Grant
- Abena Agyekum
- Celine Civati
- Daniel Lim
- Dinh Cong Pho
- Kenta Uno
- Reilly Frankhauser
- Sariah Hyacinth
- Shenelle Menezes
Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing (CVSN)
- CVSN Educational Fund Travel Grant
- Chin-Yen Lin
- Angela Durante
- CVSN Travel Grant
- Cleopatra Kum
Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine (GPM)
- GPM Travel Grant
- Zhiyu Yan
Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD)
- PVD FIT Travel Grant
- Kai-Uwe Jarr
- Bijen Khagi
- Soichiro Kobayashi
- Pranay Marlecha
- Christiany Tapi
The AHA Scientific Council Awards applaud the achievements of researchers, scientists, clinicians, nurses, and allied health professionals, and provide opportunities for financial rewards, special presentations, and funding to attend the AHA Scientific Sessions and other council-sponsored meetings. Hundreds of awards are offered each year to meet our members where they are in their career.