Two Students Are Awarded New Annie Le Fellowship

Two Yale graduate students have been chosen as the first recipients of a new fellowship honoring the memory of graduate student Annie Le.

The fellowship, established with an initial gift from Yale of $100,000, will benefit doctoral students in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program. Le was a doctoral student in pharmacology.

The two students, who will receive funding for the 2010-2011 academic year, are:

Jason Wallace, a fourth-year graduate student in molecular, cellular and developmental biology on Science Hill, working in the lab of Professor Ron Breaker.

Julie Button, a fifth-year graduate student in microbiology at the Yale School of Medicine, working in the microbial pathogenesis lab of Professor Jorge Galan.

Other friends and members of the Yale community also contributed to the Annie Le Fellowship Fund. The fellowship will be awarded each year by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, at the recommendation of faculty in the biological and biomedical sciences.

“Annie came to Yale to study and train as a biomedical scientist,” says Elias Lolis, associate professor of pharmacology and Le’s former doctoral supervisor. “She also cared about people and treated everyone with respect. It is for these reasons that Yale University established this fellowship in her memory.”