Skip to main content

Department of Biochemistry

2018 Chytil Travel Award & Armstrong Mentoring Award Nominations

Forwarded on behalf of Dr. Martin Egli, head of the Biochemistry Awards Committee

Attention: please submit award submission nominations within the stated date ranges.

Thank you and good luck to all our great nominees – award deliberations will surely be tough!

2018 FRANK CHYTIL TRAVEL AWARD

Nominations open annually 5/1/18-6/30/18

To nominate a student for consideration for this award, please submit all materials directly to Jen Smith at j.l.smith@vanderbilt.edu

Please include the following:

  • Provide a brief write-up explaining what meeting that you propose to attend, where the meeting will be held, and how you will participate in that meeting. The meeting may take place any time within the next and may be within the USA or abroad.
  • Provide an abstract that has been accepted for a poster or oral presentation at the proposed meeting.
  • Provide written acknowledgment of permission from your advisor that they approve of the meeting attendance.
  • Provide an updated CV.
  • Combine these documents into ONE SINGLE PDF FILE for submission.

Dr. Chytil was a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University. His research concentrated on Vitamin A metabolism and spanned more than 30 years. Born in Czechoslovakia, he and his wife Lucie and their children immigrated to the USA in 1966. Living through Nazi occupation and communism in his home country gave Dr. Chytil a unique appreciation for the freedom and life experience that may be gained via traveling the world. It was his great wish to support and provide for the education of our students; his firm belief was that a travel scholarship would allow our students the opportunity to stretch their knowledge and be involved within varied scientific circles to best develop into independent researchers. In memory of Dr. Frank Chytil, his family began this travel award in 2010.

The Frank Chytil Travel Award provides select students with a travel scholarship in order to broaden their research experience. The winning applicant will receive $1000.00 toward their trip. This is an annual award, open to all Biochemistry and MSTP students, and may only be awarded once per each student's education at Vanderbilt University.

Upon receipt of all applications, a three-member committee appointed by our DGS and Department Chair will evaluate the candidate proposals. The strength of the student's abstract and their academic standing will be factors for consideration. A decision will be reached by early July. Best of luck for a bon voyage!

Award: commemorative plaque, name added to the Department’s perpetual plaque, and a travel allowance of up to $1000.00, courtesy of the Chytil Fund.

2018 Armstrong Mentoring Award

Nominations open 5/1/18-6/30/18

To nominate a faculty member for consideration of this award, please submit all materials directly to Jen Smith at j.l.smith@vanderbilt.edu

Please include the following:

  • Provide a nomination letter detailing how a teacher or peer colleague exemplifies a commitment to excellence in student or post-doctoral training.
  • Additional letters of support may be included, but are optional (from graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, or peer colleagues).
  • Jen Smith will secure an updated CV from the candidates.

Established in 2016, this annual award will be granted to a Vanderbilt Biochemistry-affiliated faculty member whose commitment and excellence in student or post-doctoral training is exemplary. Named in honor of the late Dr. Richard Armstrong, Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Vanderbilt University and Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. The research of Dr. Armstrong focused on how enzymes detoxify foreign molecules through a multipronged chemical, structural, and molecular approach. As an editor of the journal Biochemistry, Richard fostered the dissemination of shared scientific knowledge. His work as a teacher, scholar, and advisor were instrumental in expertly guiding students though the rigors of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He emphasized fundamentals through his numerous lectures and selflessly served the Biochemistry community through teaching, committee membership, grant reviews, and participation in professional societies. He was also fond of teaching his young relatives to fish.

The winner will be determined via an appointed selection committee. A committee decision should be reached by late July.

Award: commemorative plaque, name added to a Departmental perpetual plaque, and a $2500 cash award courtesy of the Richard Armstrong Fund. To date, we have not had an inaugural winner of this award…