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THE AWARD
The Maryland Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) and Maryland Outstanding Young Engineer (OYE) award programs were established in 1959 to recognize and celebrate extraordinary contributions of young scientists and engineers in Maryland. The award is sponsored by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and conferred by the Maryland Science Center in the hopes of encouraging the important work of young scientists in the state of Maryland, and to increase public awareness of their accomplishments. Many previous recipients of these awards have gone on to distinguished careers in science in Maryland. The award recipients receive the Allan C. Davis Medal and a cash award of $2,500.

MEET THIS YEARS' WINNERS...

Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS)
Andrea Meredith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Department of Physiology
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Meredith completed her undergraduate studies at The University of Maryland Baltimore County and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Meredith was a Howard Hughes Research Associate at Stanford University, in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Aldrich, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her research focused on the physiological roles for the large conductance calcium-activated BK potassium channel. Her work led to several critical discoveries supporting this unique channel as a novel pharmacological target for urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and neuroprotection. Her mouse lines are licensed to several pharmaceutical companies for therapeutic development. Dr. Meredith’s studies on BK channels led to several high profile publications in prominent journals, as well as a front-page article on her in The Baltimore Sun.

Dr. Meredith jointed the Department of Physiology at The University of Maryland School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2006. Dr. Meredith’s recent research has focused on understanding the contribution of individual ion channels to information encoding at the cellular, circuit, and systems levels. Her studies in the brain’s “clock” have revealed mechanisms for how neurons encode time and communicate time of day to the body.

Dr. Meredith has published over 14 research papers and has received several awards including the Ida Green Award from the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation.

Outstanding Young Engineer (OYE)
Dr. Sharon Gerecht
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Gerecht completed her undergraduate studies at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, and her MSc at Tel-Aviv University. In 2000, she returned to the Technion for her PhD studies in Prof. Itskovitz-Eldor laboratory, working at the forefront of human stem cell differentiation.

She moved to the U.S. for postgraduate training and joined Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic’s research group in Professor Robert Langer’s laboratory at the Massachusetts institute of Technology. There, Dr. Gerecht initiated studies of chemical, mechanical and physical effects on cell growth and differentiation. She developed novel biomaterial scaffolds, modified surfaces, microbioreactors and imaging options for quantitative studies of stem cells and their application in regeneration. Her postdoctoral training was supported through an award from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to engineering vasculature for the treatment of cardiovascular complications in diabetic patients.

Dr. Gerecht joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University as an Assistant Professor in July 2007. Her research is focused on employing engineering fundamentals to study basic questions in stem cell biology and applying these for vascular repair and regeneration. She has published over 20 research papers, 7 book chapters, and holds 5 issued US patents.