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Celebrating Excellence: SOT to Honor Distinction in Toxicology at the 2026 Annual Meeting

By Patrick Allard posted 3 hours ago

  

SOT recognizes pioneering toxicologists, talented early career scientists, outstanding postdocs and students, and other individuals supporting the science of toxicology through its 2026 awards.

This year’s awardees have contributed to the advancement of science and toxicology in many ways, including:

  • Developing new approach methodologies (NAMs) for use in regulatory decision-making

  • Creating and applying physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to inform risk assessment

  • Reshaping understanding of how environmental chemicals perturb neuronal connectivity and neurodevelopment

  • Explaining the pathways underlying chemical-induced liver injury and converting that knowledge into adverse outcome pathway frameworks and predictive in vitro test batteries

  • Determining species-related and population-based differences in susceptibility to organophosphate insecticides and chemical threat agents

  • Developing the nomogram used to assess the toxicity potential of acetaminophen overdoses and testing the subsequent antidote to these overdoses

  • Improving understanding of the health risks posed by complex mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

  • Modernizing nonclinical safety assessments

  • Designing studies with human dose relevancy to better understand the effects of inhaled, engineered nanoparticles and ambient air pollutant aerosols

Beyond scientific discoveries, this year’s awardees have influenced future generations of toxicologists and the public through efforts such as:

  • Expanding toxicology curriculum

  • Interfacing with at-risk populations and communities

  • Mentoring across all education levels

  • Developing and redesigning coursework

  • Advocating for grants and legislation that support public health initiatives

This year’s awards include a new SOT supported award by Pfizer that supports a graduate fellowship.

The 2026 new Honorary member and SOT Award recipients will be honored during the Society’s 65th Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in San Diego, California, March 22–25, 2026.

SOT HONORS (Conferred by the SOT Nominating Committee for Honorary Members)

SOT Honorary Membership

SOT recognizes nonmembers who embody outstanding and sustained achievements in the field of toxicology and/or allied disciplines with Honorary membership.

  • Barry H. Rumack, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO

SOT AWARDS (Conferred by the SOT Awards Committee or SOT Council)

SOT Achievement Award

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made significant contributions to toxicology within 15 years of obtaining their highest earned degree.

  • Katie Paul Friedman, PhD, UL Research Institutes’ Chemical Insights, Research Triangle Park, NC

SOT Arnold J. Lehman Award

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made a major contribution to risk assessment and/or the regulation of chemical agents, including pharmaceuticals. The contribution may have resulted from the application of sound scientific principles to regulation and/or from research activities that have significantly influenced the regulatory process.

  • Babasaheb Sonawane, PhD, Independent Consultant, Newberry, FL

SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made substantial and seminal scientific contributions to the understanding of the science of toxicology and is actively involved in toxicological research.

  • Pamela J. Lein, PhD, University of California Davis, Davis, CA
    Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award Lecture: Monday, March 23, 11:00 AM to 12:00 Noon

SOT Education Award

This award recognizes an individual who is distinguished by the teaching and training of toxicologists and who has made significant contributions to education in the broad field of toxicology.

  • B. Paige Lawrence, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY

SOT Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award

This award recognizes an SOT member for contributions made to the advancement of toxicological science through the development and application of methods that replace, refine, or reduce the need for experimental animals. This award recognizes outstanding/significant contributions made by SOT members to the scientifically sound and responsible use of animals in research. This award also serves to recognize member contributions to the public awareness of the importance of animals in toxicology research. The achievement recognized may be either a seminal piece of work or a long-term contribution to toxicological science and animal welfare.

  • Mathieu Vinken, PharmD, PhD, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology)

This award, sponsored by the SOT Endowment Fund, recognizes a Full, Emeritus, or Retired Full member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision-making through the development and/or application of state-of-the-art approaches that elucidate, with a high degree of confidence, the distinctions for humans between safe and unsafe levels of exposures to chemical and physical agents.

  • Janice E. Chambers, PhD, DABT, ATS, AAAS Fellow, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS

SOT Leading Edge in Basic Science Award

This award recognizes a scientist who, based on research, has made a recent (within the last five years), seminal scientific contribution/advance to understanding fundamental mechanisms of toxicity. The recipient should be a respected basic scientist whose research findings are likely to have a pervasive impact on the field of toxicology.

  • Staci Simonich, PhD, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
    Leading Edge in Basic Science Award Lecture: Tuesday, March 24, 4:30 PM to 5:15 PM (within Breakthroughs in Basic and Translational Toxicology Session)

SOT Merit Award

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made distinguished contributions to toxicology throughout an entire career in areas such as research, teaching, regulatory activities, consulting, and service to the Society.

  • Ruth A. Roberts, PhD, ATS, ERT, FRSB, FBTS, FRCPath, ApconiX, Alderley Park, Cheshire, United Kingdom; and University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
    Merit Award Lecture: Tuesday, March 24, 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM

SOT Public Communications Award

The SOT Public Communications Award is presented to recognize an individual who has made a major contribution to broadening the general public’s awareness of toxicological issues, including public understanding of the role and importance of experimental animals in toxicological science, through any aspect of public communications, over a significant period of time.

  • Paloma I. Beamer, PhD, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

SOT Science Policy Leadership Award

This award recognizes an elected government official (local, state, national, international) who demonstrates support for science related to protecting or advancing the health and safety of people, animals, and/or the environment.

  • Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), US Senate, Washington, DC

SOT Toxicologist Mentoring Award

This award recognizes an SOT member who has displayed a commitment to mentoring and whose advice and counsel have substantially enhanced the career development of toxicologists.

  • A. Jay Gandolfi, PhD, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

SOT Translational Impact Award

This award recognizes a scientist whose recent (within the last 10 years) outstanding clinical, environmental health, or translational research has improved human and/or public health in an area of toxicological concern.

  • Alison Cory Pearson Elder, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
    Translational Impact Award Lecture: Tuesday, March 24, 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM (within Breakthroughs in Basic and Translational Toxicology Session)

SOT Undergraduate Educator Award

This award, sponsored by the SOT Endowment Fund, recognizes an SOT member who is distinguished by outstanding contributions to the teaching of undergraduate students in toxicology and toxicology-related areas and whose efforts support the Society’s strategic efforts to “build for the future of toxicology.”

  • Tisha King-Heiden, PhD, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, La Crosse, WI

SUPPORTED AWARDS (Conferred by the SOT Awards Committee)

Bristol Myers Squibb Graduate Student Research Training Award to Promote Diversity in Toxicology

This fellowship supplements the resources available to academic laboratories hosting and supporting Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Indigenous American graduate students to conduct their research and training.

  • Madeline Vera-Colón, MS, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA
    Advisor: Nicole Sparks, PhD

Colgate-Palmolive Grants for Alternative Research

This grant identifies and supports efforts that promote, develop, refine, or validate scientifically acceptable animal alternative methods to facilitate the safety assessment of new chemicals and formulations.

  • Seyran Mutlu, PhD, Universität Bern Department of Biomedical Research Lung Precision Medicine Cluster, Bern, Switzerland

Colgate-Palmolive Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in In Vitro Toxicology

This award supports research to advance the development of alternatives to animal testing in toxicological research.

  • Ramsés Santacruz-Márquez, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

Pfizer Graduate Fellowship Award (*NEW AWARD*)

This award provides a stipend for a student toward the end of their graduate training to support their outstanding research related to science and innovation in translational toxicology research.

  • Sebastian Gutsfeld, MSc, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
    Advisor: Tamara Tal, PhD

ADDITIONAL AWARDS

Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award

Selected by the SOT Board of Publications, this award recognizes the author(s) of a paper published in the official SOT journal, Toxicological Sciences, during the 12-month period terminating with the June issue of the calendar year preceding the Annual Meeting at which the award is presented.

  • Jiri Aubrecht, David Potter, John Michael Sauer, Roscoe Warner, Kent J. Johnson, Mitchell R. McGill, Katrina Peron, and Nicholas M. P. King. 2025. “Serum Glutamate Dehydrogenase Activity Enables Sensitive and Specific Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Injury in Humans.” Toxicological Sciences 203, no. 2 (February): 171–180. https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/203/2/171/7879356

SOT/SOT Endowment Fund/IUTOX Travel Awards

These travel fellowships, administered by IUTOX and sponsored by SOT and the SOT Endowment Fund, are awarded to junior and senior scientists from countries where toxicology is underrepresented to assist with travel to attend the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.

  • Liyana Hazwani Mohd Adnan, PhD, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

  • Gabriela Corrêa, PhD, Grupo Boticário, São José dos Pinhais, Brazil

  • Carolina I. Ghanem, PhD, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

  • Kingsley C. Patrick-Iwuanyanwu, PhD, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

  • Candace van Pletzen, BSc, Tygerberg Poison Information Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

SOT Best Postdoctoral Publication Awards

Presented by the SOT Postdoctoral Assembly, these awards recognize outstanding work accomplished during formal mentored postdoctoral traineeships by recognizing exceptional recently published papers in the field of toxicology.

  • Haoxuan Chen, PhD, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
    Paper Citation: Chen, Haoxuan, Airi Harui, Yu Feng, Liqiao Li, Saagar Patel, Jacob Schmidt, Michael D. Roth, and Yifang Zhu. 2024. “A Ventilated Three-Dimensional Artificial Lung System for Human Inhalation Exposure Studies.” Environmental Science & Technology Volume 58, Issue 52 (December): 22919–22929. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c08315

  • Marcus A. Garcia, PharmD, University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, Albuquerque, NM
    Paper Citation: Nihart, Alexander J., Marcus A. Garcia, Eliane El Hayek, Rui Liu, Marian Olewine, Josiah D. Kingston, Eliseo F. Castillo, et al. 2025. “Bioaccumulation of Microplastics in Decedent Human Brains.” Nature Medicine 31 (April): 1114–1119.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03453-1

  • David Leuthold, PhD, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
    Paper Citation: Leuthold, David. Nadia K. Herold, Jana Nerlich, Kristina Bartmann, Ilka Scharkin, Stefan J. Hallermann, Nicole Schweiger, Ellen Fritsche, and Tamara Tal. 2025 “Multi-behavioral Phenotyping in Early-Life-Stage Zebrafish for Identifying Disruptors of Non-associative Learning.” Environmental Health Perspectives Online Ahead of Print (May).
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40445242/

SOT Perry J. Gehring Diversity Student Travel Award

Selected by the SOT Committee on Diversity Initiatives and named after an SOT Past President, this award recognizes an undergraduate or graduate student who was previously selected to participate in the SOT Undergraduate Diversity Program, who is from a racial/ethnic group underrepresented in toxicology (for example, African American, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander), and who is presenting a poster at the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.

  • Jayla Keyondra Barkley, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA

  • Mario Leonel Ramirez, BS, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

SOT Undergraduate Development Program Advisor Travel Award

This award provides the opportunity for undergraduate faculty advisors who are not SOT members to attend the SOT Undergraduate Development Program at the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo to help them become more familiar with toxicology as a career option for their students.

  • Stephanie Bingham, PhD, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL

  • Davita Camp, PhD, Spelman College, Lawrenceville, GA

  • Anathbandhu Chaudhuri, PhD, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, AL

  • Rosalynn Quinones, PhD, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

  • Aeisha Thomas, PhD, Crown College, St. Bonifacius, MN

SOT Undergraduate Development Program Student Travel Award

This award provides the opportunity for promising undergraduate science majors interested in research careers to attend the SOT Undergraduate Development Program at the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.

  • Jeremy Alexander, University of Southern California, Porter Ranch, CA

  • Mariam Ali, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Little Ferry, NJ

  • Sadie Allen, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC

  • Eliel O. Chárriez Meléndez, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo, Toa Alta, Puerto Rico

  • Arena Chowdhury, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutherford, NJ

  • Connor Cochran, Gordon State College, Griffin, GA

  • Kirstin Eades, Ashland University, London, OH

  • Mariam Elkarawash, University of Rhode Island, Pawtucket, RI

  • Justin Fraser, North Carolina A&T State University, Patchogue, NY

  • Kerlanys Y. Fuentes Torres, Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Luquillo, Puerto Rico

  • Delaney Geary, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

  • Jessica Jean Pierre, Trinity Washington University, Brentwood, MD

  • Kareena Najah Karim-Manning, Albany State University, Huttig, AR

  • LeaAnn King, Northern Kentucky University, Carrollton, KY

  • Valarie Malty, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Elizabeth, NJ

  • Alejandra Marin Argueta, Trinity Washington University, Washington, DC

  • Melana Mendoza, Virginia Tech, Chesapeake, VA

  • Alanna Nelson-Weir, Barry University, Long Beach, CA

  • Caitlyn Ragan, Albany State University, Antioch, TN

  • Ashley Marie Rosario Ramos, University of Providence, Great Falls, MT

  • Ariadna Camila Sánchez Rosales, Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Carolina, Puerto Rico

  • Chassidy Shedrick, Albany State University, Edison, GA

  • Clay Sherfey, King University, Bluff City, TN

  • Najua J. Strooband Said, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo, Arecibo, Puerto Rico

  • Yasiri Suarez-Jimenez, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo, Toa Alta, Puerto Rico

  • Faria Tavacoli, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

  • Leah Thompson-Barrow, Barry University, Tamarac, FL

  • Nicole Vanegas-Riddick, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX

  • Gabreon Wash, Albany State University, Atlanta, GA

  • Magdalyn Worley, King University, Bristol, VA

SOT Undergraduate Research Awards

These awards recognize outstanding undergraduates who have not yet received their bachelor’s degrees and are presenting research at the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. The goal of these awards is to foster interest in graduate studies in the field of toxicology.

  • Nabeelah K. Aregbe, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

  • Camille Grace Baker, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA

  • Saraf Jalil Bhuiya, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

  • Esther Biro, University of Maine, Orono, ME

  • Jiayang Chen, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

  • Ava M. Frescura, Baylor University, Waco, TX

  • Christina Alexa Gogzheyan, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY

  • Danna Gómez, Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia

  • Owen Hiltebrand, McGill University, Montréal, Canada

  • Zachary Lewis Kelly, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

  • Kush Kumar, University of Miami, Coral Cables, FL

  • Maxwell Miso Maloney, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

  • Diana Abarca Palma, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI

  • Chi Pham, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

  • Guilherme Ponciano de Barros, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

  • Saige Rigby, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID

  • Ahmed Shah, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

  • Risa Smith, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

  • Nishi Suresh, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Each year, SOT also provides support to more than 100 graduate and undergraduate students through student travel awards and the SOT Endowment Fund awards.

More information on the 2026 Award recipients is available on the SOT website.


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