PBS Graduate Student Laura Pritschet awarded Michael D. Young Engaged Scholar and Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Awards
PBS PhD Candidate Laura Pritschet has recently won two prestigious University and Graduate Division awards: the Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award as well as the Michael D. Young Engaged Scholar Award.
The Michael D. Young Engaged Scholar Award is awarded to one student (graduate or undergraduate, from the 2023 graduating class of > 6,000) who has skillfully integrated their scholarly knowledge and values into action. The Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award recognizes 1-3 graduate students who have distinguished themselves as mentors of undergraduates.
Laura is a graduating PhD candidate in Cognition, Perception and Cognitive Neuroscience in the PBS Department. In the Jacobs lab, Laura used precision neuroimaging to investigate the impact of sex hormones on the structural and functional architecture of the human brain. Laura’s research has culminated in 11 publications in leading neuroscience journals, and her work has been supported by an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship and more recently, a prestigious NIH F99/K00 pre-to-postdoctoral transition fellowship. Laura’s overarching mission is to ensure that women benefit equally from our collective research efforts. She has shared this message across many platforms, including co-authored perspective pieces and a conference presentation as an NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health Science Policy Scholar in which she highlighted the underrepresentation of women’s health factors in human neuroscience. Throughout her PhD, Laura was also deeply committed to increasing the representation of women in STEM, which has included being involved in science outreach with K-12 groups and high schools in the Santa Barbara community and serving as the co-President of Access Grads. In addition, Laura served as a primary mentor of several senior undergraduate research theses in the Jacobs lab, which have culminated in publications co-authored by Laura’s mentees and/or been recognized by PBS awards (e.g. the Morgan Award for Research Excellence).
Congratulations, Laura!
