Clinical/Laboratory Research Professional Award
Nominations due: September 18, 2023

UC College of Medicine staff serve our research mission in a way that vastly transforms productivity and drives the research enterprise. To recognize this service the CoM Office of Research is soliciting nominations for the Clinical Research Professional Award and the Laboratory Research Professional Award. A single award will be presented to each a clinical and a laboratory research employee who, in the opinion of the CoM research leadership, shows an outstanding commitment to advancing the CoM research mission. The recipients of this recognition will be honored with an award of $1,000. 

Application requirements for either award

To be considered, the nominating application must be in the form of a single pdf that includes the following:

• Cover sheet (include name, email address, professional title, department, and contact information of those who provided a recommendation),
• A letter of recommendation from CoM faculty supervisor (not to exceed three pages),
• Nominee’s CV Clinical CV Example and Laboratory CV Example)
  • Optional: Include a table with the following information for which more detail is given in the CV and which includes only work for a UC CoM principal investigator: number of years of service, publications/manuscripts, poster presentations, oral presentations, clinical trials, UC, national, or international committees.

These are two separate and distinct awards. Applicants should further review the Clinical Research Professional Award RFA or the Laboratory Research Professional Award RFA for specific information unique to each award. Nominations should be submitted electronically through the submission portal. Questions should be sent to Brieanne Sheehan.

2022 Research Professional Awardees

Clinical Research Professional Awardee

Clinical Research Professional Awardee 

Hilary Perez, PhD, CCRP, Department of Neurosurgery

Nominated by: Jed Hartings, PhD; Joseph S. Cheng, MD, MS; Brandon Foreman, MD FACNS FNCS

Dr. Hilary Perez is the Clinical Research Manager in the Department of Neurosurgery, where she has developed the department’s clinical trial program over the past 4 years. Hilary began at UC in a neuroscience basic research lab, later obtained her PhD in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, then transitioned to clinical research with Neurology’s Movement Disorders team. In her current position, Hilary has rebuilt Neurosurgery’s clinical research program, including the initiation of 14 new trials from 2019-2022, the hiring of 4 new team members, the development of operational and financial practices, and creation of the program’s mission and vision statement. In her duties, she coordinates widely across the spectrum of clinical and research staff in the neuroscience ICU, emergency department, and UCGNI. In addition to her roles as a project manager, study coordinator, and team leader, Hilary also serves as an IRB board member, on the leadership team for the Clinical Research Managers Committee, and on various committees aimed at improving clinical research operations across the institution.  

Laboratory Research Professional Awardee

Chet Closson, BS, Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology

Nomination by: Christian Hong, PhD; Ken Greis, PhD; James Herman, PhD

Chet Closson is a Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Pharmacology & Systems Physiology, and has served as the manager of the Live Microscopy Core facility for 17 years. Chet serves as both the administrative manager and technician for the facility, providing researchers with training and imaging expertise on advanced microscopy instrumentation, consulting on experimental design, sample prep and image analysis, assisting in data collection, and performing maintenance and upkeep on all equipment in the core. In effort to provide researchers with the latest imaging technology and capabilities, Chet continually researches latest developments in the field, hosts in house demonstrations of new equipment, and applies for external funding opportunities. These efforts have recently resulted in an NIH S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant Award for a new state-of-the-art confocal microscope system.