Giselle López, MD, PhD, was awarded in July 2022 a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS) Award, which provides support to early-career researchers with caregiving duties. It also normalizes balancing research careers with children/elder care responsibilities, emphasizing support for those from marginalized groups.
“The support from this award allows my research to continue unabated, in spite of additional challenges of making headway in research while simultaneously managing childcare during a pandemic,” said López.
“You all presented very compelling applications and we look forward to hearing from time to time how you are using the award to promote your career development,” wrote Rasheed Gbadegesin, MBBS, MD, FASN, Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development, in a memo to the awardees. “Hopefully in the not-distant future, many institutions will realize the importance of having this program in their faculty development portfolio.”
Although such programs existed prior to 2000, FRCS was the first such large-scale multicenter intervention in academic medicine. Read more about it in this article published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.