The American Academy of Sleep Medicine congratulates the recipient of the 2021 Trainee Investigator Award, Dr. Omonigho Bubu, and the three individuals who received the honorable mention designation. They were recognized during the AASM annual membership meeting, which was held as a webcast on Monday, June 14.
The award program is open to AASM members who are students, postdoctoral fellows and residents, and who present an abstract at the SLEEP annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC Each applicant's abstract was reviewed by the AASM Education Committee, and the abstracts with the highest scores were selected for recognition. The 2021 recipients were determined from among 61 applicants.
The winner received a $1,000 award, and an award of $500 was given to each of the honorable mention recipients. Their abstracts are available in the SLEEP 2021 abstract supplement. SLEEP 2021, the 35th annual meeting of the APSS, was held as a virtual meeting June 10-13.
Trainee Investigator Award Recipient
Dr. Omonigho Bubu, is an assistant professor and physician scientist at in the departments of psychiatry and population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His research focus on sleep, aging and Alzheimer's disease in Blacks, and he examines how age-related and age-dependent sleep changes and vascular risk impact cognitive decline and Alzheimer's risk, and how they drive related disparities. He has collaborated with experts in the field on intramural, foundation and NIH grants, with significant contributions that have improved the understanding of the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease.
Honorable Mentions
Christina Chick has a doctorate in developmental and cognitive psychology and is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research examines the mechanistic contributions of sleep and cognition regarding the onset and course of psychiatric disorders. She is interested in adolescence as a period during which changes in circadian rhythm, sleep architecture, and sleep behavior co-occur with neuroendocrine development, psychosocial changes, and the onset of many psychiatric disorders. Chick believes increasing our understanding of the specific contributions of sleep to psychiatric symptom onset may facilitate the development of targeted interventions to mitigate the course of illness.
Andrew Tubbs is an MD/PhD candidate completing his doctorate in psychiatry at the University of Arizona. His translational neuroscience research focuses on how sleep and circadian rhythms influence mental health. He uses inferential modeling and machine learning to leverage community and national datasets to understand how the timing of wakefulness influences suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Tubbs is also trained in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, which he provided to patients with psychosis and other serious mental illnesses at the Early Psychosis Intervention Center.
Dr. Jeremy Chan is a sleep medicine fellow in the pediatric track at the University of Washington. He completed his residency training in pediatric neurology at Seattle Children's Hospital, and he plans to return there next year to begin his career practicing pediatric sleep medicine as a faculty member. Chan's main academic interest is promoting better sleep in children with developmental disabilities. He is interested in expanding the use of neurostimulation in the pediatric population to treat sleep-disordered breathing.