This award was established by the students of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics to honor Dr. Philip L. Hawley shortly after his sudden death in 1993. Dr. Hawley was born in Hartford, Connecticut. After receiving his undergraduate degree at Bowdoin College and his master’s degree at Wesleyan College he began teaching at the American University in Beirut. He returned to receive his doctorate at the University of Illinois before returning to teaching overseas at the Haile Selassie I University in Ethiopia eventually becoming the dean of students. He returned to the US to teach at Loyola University before joining our Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1966. His teaching was very popular with the students, and he was a great supporter of them.

A renown muscle physiologist, Dr. Kate Bárány joined the faculty of the department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 1974. At UIC, Kate continued her scientific accomplishments, while at the same time displaying a unique and avid dedication to classroom teaching, and to helping women students and faculty cope with the special issues facing their pursuit of careers in science, medicine, and education. She received the coveted Golden Apple Award from medical students and University wide teaching recognitions. As an active member of the UIC Committee on the Status of Women, she saw no barrier too big to overcome. Kate was instrumental in establishing the UIC Children’s Center and fought for flexible tenure and career guidance for women in science and for an end to the practice of paying lower pensions to women who had invested the same rate as men. In recognition of her active efforts as well as her history as a role model going back to a period when very few women chose a scientific profession, Kate was named Woman of the Year at UIC in 1996.*

• Anthology (588 KB PDF)
• Tribute (178 KB PDF)

Mark R. Lambrecht was born March 18, 1966 in Rochester, NY. He moved with his family to Highland Park, IL in 1971 and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1984. He received the BSc from the University of Rochester in 1988. Mark was an exceptional student. His favorite sport was tennis, and his great avocation was black and white photography. Mark decided to explore a career in medicine and research, and in 1988 joined the laboratories of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, where he was involved in studies on neurobiology, biochemistry and biophysics of behavior. Owing to Mark’s considerable talents and wonderful personality, he took at on a broader role in implementing the use of electronic mail in the department which was then a relatively new and unfamiliar technology. On March 31st, 1989, we lost Mark in a tragic accident. To honor Mark’s memory, the Department of Physiology and Biophysics instituted the Mark R. Lambrecht Award for Scholarship and Commitment as an annual award for pre-doctoral candidates.

• Lambrecht Award Album (4MB PDF)

• 2021 – Cody Justice
• 2012 – Leonid Serebryannyy
• 2012 – Esther Calderon
• 2010 – Domenico Taglieri
• 2008 – Amika Singla
• 2008 – Yalda Afshar
• 2007 – Sarah Scruggs

John moved to UIC from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He trained for the PhD in the Department of Physiology, at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and in 1971 immediately moved to a faculty position at the Medical College of Virginia. His undergraduate degree is in Pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati. In 1975-76 he was a Fellow of the American and British Heart Associations and worked with Professor S. V. Perry in Birmingham, England. In 1987 he was a Fogarty Fellow working with Professor David Allen at University College London. He is past director and founder of the UIC Center for Cardiovascular Research. At UIC, Solaro received the University Scholar Award, the Faculty of the Year Award, the Mentor of the Year Award, and the Distinguished Service Award. Solaro was a member of the NIH Physiology study section, and is past Chair of the Skeletal Muscle and Exercise Physiology and the Cardiovascular Sciences study sections. He has served on editorial boards of leading biochemical, clinical and cardiovascular journals and as Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief (2017-2019) of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. Solaro has 387 peer reviewed publications on studies of the molecular, cellular and integrative physiology of the dynamics of the heartbeat with emphasis on developing therapies for acquired and genetic heart disorders. He been continually funded by National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association since 1974. He continues to be a consultant to Biotech and Pharma related to the development of therapies for cardiac disorders.

After training as a registered nurse at the University of Cincinnati and Christ Hospital, Kathleen Solaro trained at the Medical College of Virginia as a Nurse Practitioner. Kathy had a 20+ year career as a Nurse Practitioner in Women’s Health. Since retiring she has served as volunteer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their community outreach programs.

When John was named Head of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at UIC, Kathy became engaged in interactions with faculty partners and with faculty, many of whom were women. Kathy took the lead in hosting events associated with faculty retreats in the Solaro home and with trainees in the Solaro labs. Kathy was at John’s side in virtually every social and award event in the department and developed a long-standing friendship with the Lambrecht family, who are supporters of graduate students in the department. In view of these long standing and close relations with the department, John and Kathy agreed that it was important to do something tangible to demonstrate appreciation for all the good things that have come their way at UIC. Having experienced the challenges of being in graduate school, while Kathy was a stay at home mom with two babies, It took little planning for John and Kathy to decide that endowing a graduate fellowship would be their choice for supporting and helping the career path of budding scientists.

John and Kathy are the parents of Christopher Solaro (MD, PhD Washington University School of Medicine, BSc Bioengineering, Northwestern University) and Elizabeth Solaro (BA, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern). John and Kathy have 5 grandchildren.