Loyola Honors Junior Scientist of the Year

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) will honor Seth L. Robia, PhD, with the Junior Scientist of the Year Award. Robia is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology at SSOM. The award ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, in SSOM’s Tobin Hall. “I am happy to accept this award on behalf of the outstanding team of scientists that work in my laboratory,” said Robia. “The hard work, creativity and innovation that they put into their scientific work is exemplary. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.” Assistant professors at SSOM were eligible for the Junior Scientist of the Year Award. Nominees could be basic, clinical and translational investigators. Selection criteria were based on scientific productivity, scholarly service in professional society activities, editorial board and peer-reviewed activities, service to the institution, research funding and mentoring of students and trainees. Robia, who lives in Westchester, Ill., was among several candidates nominated by his peers for this award. He was then selected by an ad hoc committee composed of SSOM faculty. “Seth is a well-established researcher and scholar who has advanced rapidly in the early phases of his scientific career,” said Richard Kennedy, PhD, senior associate dean of research at SSOM and vice president of Health Sciences Research at Loyola University Health System. “He will no doubt continue to succeed and expand on an already solid body of work and leadership in his academic area.” Robia received his PhD in physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. He went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in biophysics at the University of Minnesota. Robia came to Loyola in 2006, where he continues to focus on research in the regulation of cardiac ion pumps. The goal of this research is to understand how the heart responds to the varying demands of exercise and rest and to determine how these mechanisms are disrupted by disease. Robia will discuss his research during the Junior Scientist of the Year Award Ceremony. ###