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SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award

One of the Society’s highest honors, the SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award is presented to an SOT member who has made substantial and seminal scientific contributions to the understanding of the science of toxicology. Nominees should be active scientists involved in toxicological research. The prime consideration for this award is scientific accomplishment. 

The recipient of the 2020 SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award will present the Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award Lecture during the 2021 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. This awardee also will be honored at the Awards Ceremony during the 2021 Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.

Making a Nomination

The deadline to submit a nomination is October 9, 2020. Nominations should include both a primary and a secondary letter of nomination from Full members of the Society that provide in layman’s terms an analysis of the nominee’s significant contributions to toxicology and how they apply to the award criteria. The strongest nomination packages include two letters that are distinct from one another to offer more detailed support of the candidate’s qualifications. Nomination packages that include very similar letters of nomination offer less information than those that include recommendations that are varied in content. Letters of nomination should be specific and descriptive while also maintaining a level of concision. The Awards Committee will review only the two letters required to complete the nomination; no additional letters will be considered.

Nominations also should include the nominee’s up-to-date CV. For national SOT Awards, such as the Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award, the Awards Committee requires a standardized length for CVs included in nomination packages. CVs must be a maximum of 10 pages in length and should highlight the candidate’s most significant professional accomplishments as they relate to the criteria for the award. Awards Committee members are required to review only 10 pages of each CV; therefore, submitting a longer CV does not strengthen an award nomination. 

For more information on making a nomination, please review the “Awards Review Process and FAQs” web page of the SOT website. Please direct any inquiries to SOT Headquarters.

This is an opportunity to honor your colleagues for their outstanding accomplishments; you are encouraged to submit your nominations by October 9.

Spotlight on 2020 SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award Recipient Shuk-mei Ho, PhD

Dr. Ho was awarded the 2020 SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award for her pivotal work elucidating the role of endocrine disruptors in disease and on the developmental origins of adult disease.

Dr. Ho received her PhD in zoology from the University of Hong Kong in 1978. Her illustrious career in academia began as a Research Associate and later Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University, after which she spent nearly two decades at Tufts University, where she eventually became Associate Dean for Research of the School of Graduate Studies and Continued Education. During her next appointment, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Memorial Health Care System, she published 50 papers in seven years, completing her tenure as Vice-Chair for Research within the Department of Surgery. Dr. Ho then held positions at the University of Cincinnati, including Director of the Cincinnati Cancer Center, Director of the Center for Environmental Genetics, and Associate Dean for Basic Research in the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

In her current position as Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Ho oversees strategic planning and administration of research portfolios in six colleges and seven institutes at the main campus in Little Rock, Arkansas; the Northwestern Arkansas campus; and across eight regional medical campuses in Arkansas.

Dr. Ho is a leader in developmental and reproductive toxicology. Her research relating early exposure to bisphenol A to increased cancer risk later in life bolstered the ban against the use of bisphenol A in products for babies and children. Further, Dr. Ho first demonstrated that epigenetics plays a major role in gene-environment interactions and disease etiology, and she contributed significantly to the idea that there were windows of susceptibility in toxicant-induced diseases. Dr. Ho’s findings opened the possibility of using biomarkers of early-life exposure to predict and prevent environmental diseases later in life.

Dr. Ho’s massive publication record is a testament to her distinction in the field. Her more than 240 articles have been cited 17,500 times, resulting in an h-index of 69 and contributing to the furtherance of environmental epigenetics and the understanding of developmental origins of adult health and disease.

Further, through her commitment to instruction and training, Dr. Ho has garnered over $50 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and her work has been continuously supported by the NIH for more than 30 years. She has trained more than 80 pre- and postdoctoral fellows, clinical researchers, junior faculty, and international visiting scholars in her laboratory. Dr. Ho has been an SOT member since 2008.