Photo credit: New York Academy of Sciences
Dr. Laura Duvall, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, has been selected as the 2019 Regional Winner in Life Sciences by the Blavatnik Foundation for their annual Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. Dr. Duvall does groundbreaking work spanning neurobiology, cell and molecular biology, and genetics, with focus upon the molecular systems driving the behavior of blood-feeding arthropods. In a recent tweet, the Blavatnik Foundation has noted the importance of such research in "controlling mosquito populations and the spread of diseases such as dengue and Zika."
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists began in 2007 as a way of promoting scientists with unusual promise, "at a point in scientific discovery when seed funding can most significantly accelerate breakthrough research." (More about the Blavatnik Family Foundation is available here.) Winners receive $30,000 and are honored at the New York Academy of Sciences Annual Gala in New York City.