Meet the 2024 Winner: Melanie Königshoff, MD, PhD, ATSF
Melanie Königshoff is a Professor of Medicine, the Associate Chief of Research and the Director of the Center for Lung Aging and Regeneration at the Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine Division at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Königshoff is a highly productive and innovative researcher and has made seminal contributions to our understanding of WNT signaling in the development of chronic lung diseases, specifically IPF and COPD. She has received the ATS Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments in 2022. Teaching and Mentoring have always been basic pillars in her professional life and one of the most rewarding activities. She has served as the director of the International Graduate Program “Lung Biology and Disease”, the founding director of the Physician-Scientist Training program, as well as the Munich International Training Autumn School during her tenure at the Helmholtz Zentrum and Ludwig-Maximillian’s University of Munich. Currently, Dr. Königshoff is involved in divisional and departmental physician-scientist postdoc programs at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as the Co-Director of the Pulmonary T32. Within her own labs, she has directly supervised and mentored more than 35 Post-Doctoral Fellows, MD Fellows, PhD students or undergraduate students, which have received further career development and independent grants, including ERC Starting Grants, Emmy Noether Young Investigator Group, F32, K08, K99/R00, and ATS Foundation Grants. Several former trainees are faculty in highly ranked academic institutions world-wide.
Description:
Dr. Andy Tager was a remarkable physician-scientist who combined his talent as an astute and caring physician, with that of a creative and insightful scientist, and with a lifelong dedication to helping others. Dr. Tager received multiple national awards for his discovery of bioactive lipids as potential targets of therapy in interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and distinguishing himself as one of the few to fulfill the dream of taking his work from bench to bedside. He was a selfless mentor to trainees and colleagues at his home institution, caring for the careers of those he was mentoring at least as much as his own. Less obvious to others, through his many leadership roles at ATS, Dr. Tager helped promote the professional careers ATS of members, particularly the RCMB Assembly, from all over the world. The Andy Tager Award for Excellence in Mentoring is our tribute to the brilliant, caring man, whose selfless dedication touched so many hearts, in more ways than one.
Criteria:
- Have mentored 5 or more individuals who have since completed their training with the nominee
- Must be an RCMB Assembly member (primary or secondary)
- Nominations may be submitted by either the nominee (self-nomination) or others.
- Nomination must include:
- Nominee’s curriculum vitae
- A 1-page narrative outlining the reasons for the nomination
- One nomination letter supported by the signatures of 3-5 mentees.
- The letter of support must:
- Detail summary of the mentee’s current job (position/title)
- Explain how the nominee helped them with the mentee’s career development
Scoring metric weight:
- 1x - Scientific Contributions/Products
- 3x- Teaching/Mentoring/Educational Contributions
- 1x - Participation in Assembly and ATS Activities (administrative, committees, workshops etc.)
- 1x - Overall impact/impression of dossier submitted for award application
View Previous Award Recipients
2023 - Carol Feghali-Bostwick, PhD
2022 - Augustine Choi, MD
2021 - Steven Brody, MD, ATSF
2020 - Thomas Mariani, PhD
2019 - Timothy S. Blackwell, MD
2018 - Naftali Kaminski, MD
