Christina Gurnett, MD, PhD, and MD, PhD, and Fred Ssewamala, MD, PhD, have been selected by their academic peers to receive the 2024 Washington University in St. Louis Research Achievement Awards, announced Chancellor Andrew D. Martin.

Gurnett, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology in the School of Medicine, will receive the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award.

Ssewamala, the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at the Brown School, will receive the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award.

The awards will be presented at the university’s annual Founders’ Day Dinner on November 9.

“It is a true honor to present the Carl and Gerty Cori and Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Awards each year,” said Martin. “Both Compton and Cori were brilliant researchers who made discoveries that changed their fields but did not believe that their roles in society could or should be limited by the boundaries of a college campus.

“Christina Gurnett and Fred Ssewamala were selected by their faculty colleagues as representatives of this spirit: academic excellence combined with a commitment to public service. I join the Washington University community in congratulating them both.”

About Gurnett

Gurnett is the director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology and co-director of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) at the medical school. She has made breakthroughs in understanding musculoskeletal disorders by identifying genes associated with common childhood conditions such as scoliosis, clubfoot and arthrogryposis, a condition in which children are born with limited joint mobility.

An epilepsy specialist, Gurnett treats patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where she is neurologist-in-chief. She is also co-director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and co-director of the Precision Medicine Pathway for postgraduate students in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

Gurnett has risen to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic in important ways. By coordinating the collection and distribution of biospecimens from patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, Gurnett has supported the university’s successful efforts to develop a saliva-based test for the disease.

Gurnett is known for her clinical and research efforts to prioritize the needs of vulnerable and medically underserved patient populations. She is directing a large-scale gene sequencing study of scoliosis in African American adolescents. She is also co-director of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Population (RADx-UP) SARS-CoV-2 testing partnership with IDDRC and the Special School District of St. Louis County.

Gurnett was also recognized for her efforts in clinical education and laboratory research, which aim to encourage and support the careers of physicians and researchers from underrepresented groups.

About Ssevamala

Ssewamala conducts innovative, interdisciplinary research that informs, develops, and tests economic empowerment and social protection interventions designed to improve the life chances and long-term development outcomes of children and adolescents affected by poverty and health inequities in low-resource communities. He holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine and directs the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) and the SMART Africa Center.

Ssewamala currently leads eight large, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded longitudinal randomized controlled trials in sub-Saharan Africa: Bridges-R2, Kyaterekera Project, M-Suubi, Obuvumu (Discrete Choice Experiment), Suubi+Adherence-R2, Suubi+Adherence4Youth (MOST), SuubiMHealth, and Suubi4Stronger Families. In addition, he is a co-principal investigator on several NIH-funded programs focused on training young investigators for work in child behavioral health.

Ssewamala has more than 190 peer-reviewed articles in journals including The Lancet, American Journal of Public Health, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Adolescent Health, PLOS One, Prevention Science, and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Adolescent Health and an associate editor of the journal Global Social Welfare. He is a fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research, the American Public Health Association, and the Siteman Cancer Center located at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and School of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.