Doctoral students receive inaugural Godwin Emerging Scholars Endowed Awards

Samantha Chaney

Two doctoral students in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine – Samantha Chaney and Adeyeye Haastrup – are the inaugural recipients of the USA Center for Lung Biology Gary and Susan Godwin Emerging Scholars Endowed Award.

The purpose of the award is to support training opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars toward discovery of novel mechanisms in lung health and disease.

Chaney will use the award to attend the North American Vascular Biology Organization’s Vasculata conference at Stanford University in summer 2024. 

“I am excited to be able to network with a new group of researchers and learn about current vascular biology research and innovative techniques,” she said. “This awesome opportunity will give me insights from new perspectives and help me to develop my own project and career.” 

Chaney is a third-year graduate student in the vascular biology and neuroscience tracks. Her research focuses on how systemic infections, such as pneumonia, cause vascular dysfunction in the brain, including blood-brain barrier breakdown. 

Adeyeye Haastrup

Haastrup will use the award to participate in a training course in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data analysis at the University of California–Davis in spring 2024. 

“This award is extremely useful toward equipping me with the tool set needed for the execution of my graduate project and making me a better scientist,” he said. “The only way to go is forward, as we expand our capabilities to provide scientific answers to pertinent questions, contributing toward advancing the course of humanity.”

Haastrup is a second-year graduate student in the bioinformatics track. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying bioenergetic crisis in sepsis with possibilities of identifying potential molecules as biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic purposes. He received a pharmacy degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

Gary Godwin was a long-time announcer for the University of South Alabama Athletics. He developed idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and received a lung transplant in 2010. He survived five years post-transplant before his death in late 2015. His experience with a lung disease of unknown cause motivated him and his wife, Susan, to empower the next generation of lung scholars to find solutions. Their generous contribution to the USA Center for Lung Biology supports the Gary and Susan Godwin Emerging Scholars Endowed Award.