Student Honors and Awards
Student Achievements
About
The Craig Scholars Program is designed to enable first year medical students the ability to conduct research under the guidance of a UI COM faculty mentor and is one of our highly competitive, structured research programs. Please join us in congratulating this year’s awardees.
2025 Craig Scholars
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- Abraham Ahn
- Sochibeze Akaneme
- Pratibha Bhalla
- Jane Claeys
- Shaiva Dhyani
- Alison Gregorian
- Miguel Gutierrez
- Matthew Huang
- Yousaf Ilyas
- Brenan Kelleher
- Andy Kim
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- Shruti Krishna
- Christopher Martinez
- Michael McHenry
- Ava Pellegrino
- Samantha Rush
- Jessica Tsui
- Zahra Vasi
- MacKenzie Vick
- Karis Wong
- Angela Xu
- Anne Zeng
About
The Dean’s Summer Research Scholars in Basic/Translational Science program enables first year medical students to conduct defined summer research and scholarship projects under the mentorship and guidance of basic science faculty at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. We congratulate the following students on being awarded the distinction in 2025.
2025 Dean’s Summer Research Scholars
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- Neda Abbaszadeh
- Kelly Duong
- Kaley Qin
- Krishna Thakkar
About
The mission of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is to recognize individuals who practice humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in medicine. The power of the Society lies in bringing together like-minded individuals to sustain their own humanism and to inspire and nurture humanism in others. Membership in GHHS goes beyond selection and induction into an honor society; its members have demonstrated compassion, empathy and humanism in their prior work and have a responsibility to model, support, and advocate for compassionate, patient-centered care throughout their careers.
Co-Chair – Sean M. Blitzstein, MD
Director, Psychiatry Clerkship
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry University of Illinois at Chicago
Co-Chair- Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD
Professor and Interim Head
Department of Family Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
College of Medicine
Class of 2026 Chicago GHHS Inductees
As Co-Chairs of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago GHHS Chapter, we are delighted to announce the Class of 2026 GHHS inductees listed below. Congratulations!
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- NIHMOTALLAHI ADEBAYO
- RITA ATALOR
- CHRISTY CHANG
- LILLIAN ECKSTEIN
- MICHAEL EDGAR
- SERGIO GONZALEZ
- PAULA HERBST
- JAKARA HUBBARD
- MISHAAL HUKAMDAD
- ALEXY JABBOUR
- HASSAN KHAN
- DIVYA KRISHNAKUMAR
- ALLISON KUFTA
- CADENCE LEE
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- MONDOUKPE SEYIVE BANI A MEDEGAN FAGLA
- JESSICA NORMAN
- CATHERINE QUINTO
- IEMAAN RANA
- GIOVANNA SENA
- EMAN SHARIF
- MICHELLE SHEENA
- AMY SONG
- ALLISON SOTO
- HAARISUDHAN SURESHKUMAR
- JENNIFER WANG
- DAVID WU
- JULIA YU
About
2026 AOA Students
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Chicago:
- Kaho Adachi
- Andrea Cespedes Zablah
- Christy Chang
- Richard Chiu
- Deepa Dhillon
- Mariah Diaz
- Ellen Drake
- Lillian Eckstein
- Michael Edgar
- Nikith Erukulla
- Paula Herbst
- Nicole Hsing-Smith
- Mishaal Hukamdad
- Haley Hultquist
- Angela Hussain
- Benjamin Johnson
- Courtney Ketchum
- Divya Krishnakumar
- Allison Kufta
- Cadence Lee
- Kelly McConnell
- Annie McFarland
- Cameron Pedersen
- Carson Potts
- Elena Sasso
- Jheel Shah
- Amanda Snead
- Amy Song
- Haarisudhan Sureshkumar
- Alexandra Triko
- Maria Vakaki
- Margaret Weiss
- Sydney Whalen
- David Wu
- Jing Zhang
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Peoria:
- Faisal Al-Qawasmi
- Mariam Banoub
- Jordan Barone
- Yoonje Cho
- Connor Flynn
- Chirag Gopinath
- Fiona Gruzmark
- Anjani Maley
- Hannah Raj
- Diego Ruiz-Avila
- Zain Sattar
- Allie Sidwell
- Samantha Wahlers
Rockford:
- Sopuluchukwu Anidobu
- Laura Berger
- Ashley Donald
- Carson Florkowski
- Shruthi Mekala
- April Oertle
- Austin Oglesby
- Megan Saltsgaver
- Luke Sclamberg
- Emily Wilt
About
The Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship is a fellowship program through Alpha Omega Alpha national. The fellowship offers financial support for research to be conducted over a 2-12 month period. The research should focus on clinical investigation, basic laboratory research, epidemiology, social science/health services research, leadership, or professionalism. First and second-year medical students from schools with active AΩA Chapters, or Associations, are eligible. Each chapter may select one student to nominate for the award. Students must be actively enrolled in medical school classes. Students taking a year off for research or to gain a PhD are not eligible. Students who are already PhD holders are not eligible. The internal deadline for Kuckein applications is typically in December with decisions communicated by January. More information can be found on the AOA website.
Recipients of Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship
2025
Jessalyn Yam, Class of 2027, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Exploration of bis(benzyloxy)benzamide-based Antimalarials
Mentor: Paul R. Carlier, PhD
2024
Marianna Vakaki, Class of 2026, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Stem Cell Derived Extracellular Vesicles and Retinal Dysfunction in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Mentor: Steven Roth, MD
2023
David Wu, Class of 2026, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Profiling the loading and release efficacy of dexamethasone loaded drug encapsulated carbon (DECON)
Mentor: Deepak Shukla, PhD
2022
Julia May, Class of 2024, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Utilizing Optical Coherence Tomography to Enhance the Diagnosis and Treatment of Malignant Melanoma
Mentor: Kamran Avanaki, PhD, Maria Tsoukas, MD, PhD
2021
Arya Dadhania, Class of 2023, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Novel Deep Learning Model for Identification of Lung and Colon Cancer Using Histopathological Images
Mentor: Tushar N. Patel, MD, Anuj Tiwari, PhD
2020
Manish Patel, Class of 2022, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Wireless, Battery-Free, Fully-Implantable Thermal Sensors for Monitoring Organ Transplant Health and Immune Assessment of a Rodent Model
Mentor: John A. Rogers, PhD, MS