Dr. Irving Abrahams was a noted clinical microbiologist and the Head of the Division of Laboratory Research at the Nassau County Department of Health. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Department. Dr. Abrahams died unexpectedly in 1982, shortly after his retirement. His widow, Mrs. Selma Abrahams, established the Irving Abrahams Endowment Fund to be used to honor one or more graduate students training in the Department. The Irving Abrahams Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Graduate Student is the most prestigious of our graduate student awards. The first awards were made in 1983 and contributions from faculty, staff, alumni and friends have allowed the Department to continue to honor students who have made outstanding contributions in their field to this day.
Previous recipients of the Irving Abrahams Award
1983 Janet Hearing (Levine), Mary Moore (Shenk)
1984 John Cutt (Shenk), Kevin Ryder (Tegtmeyer)
1986 Mike Reddy (Bauer), Wes Yonemoto (Brugge)
1987 Mena Ostapchuk (P. Hearing)
1988 Janet Andersen (Delihas), Rob Cabelli (Oliver), Mike Murray (Wimmer)
1989 Andy Golden (Brugge), Min-Mei Huang (P. Hearing), Sanford Madigan (Katz)
1990 Ramon Parsons (Tegtmeyer), Richard Snyder (Muzyczka)
1991 Gert Bolwig (P. Hearing), Olive Yuan (Fields)
1992 Christine Ginocchio (Galan), Caroline Mirzayan (Wimmer)
1993 Kevin Harris (Wimmer), Robert O’Connor (P. Hearing)
1994 Alonzo Garcia (P. Hearing), Yun Wang (Tegtmeyer)
1995 Carmen Collazo-Custodio (Galan), Michelle Cleary (Herr), Susanne Schmid (P. Hearing)
1996 Tom Joneson (Bar-Sagi), Wenkai Xiang (Wimmer)
1998 Lee Zou (Stillman), Lance Palmer (Bliska)
1999 Laura Taylor (Bar-Sagi), David Solecki (Wimmer)
2000 Joel Schaley (P. Hearing), Steffen Mueller (Wimmer)
2001 William Parrish (Konopka)
2002 Amit Vas (Leatherwood)
2003 Sean Connolly (Benach)
2004 Jens Grabenstein (Bliska)
2005 Ling Liu (Reich)
2006 Gisselle Medina (Carter)
2007 Amanda Ullman (P. Hearing)
2008 Timothy LaRocca (Benach)
2009 Nicholas Navin (Wigler)
2010 DeAnna Bublitz (Furie)
2011 Zhixun Dou (Zong)
2012 Kai Wu (Hearing)
2013 Joseph Catanzaro (Zong) and Diana Guimet (P. Hearing)
2014 Jason Tam (van der Velden)
2015 Yueting Zheng (P. Hearing)
2016 Lawton Chung (J. Bliska)
2017 Qiwen Dong (L. Krug)
2018 David Frank (N. Carpino)
2019 John Psonis (D. Thanassi)
2021 Stephen Guadino (P. Kumar)
2022 Carla Lanze (J. Konpka)
2023 Peter Todd Benziger (D. Thanassi)
2024 Kara Swenson (J. Konopka)
To make a gift with a credit card, use the Stony Brook Foundation secure online giving page and search for "Irving Abrahams Award".
Information on gifts of securities and planned giving may be found at the Stony Brook Foundation.
