Meet the 2024 Winner: Andrey Zinchuk, MD, MHS

 

After working as a chemical engineer, Andrey Zinchuk completed his medical school training at the University of Connecticut, and his internal medicine residency, and his chief residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Boston VA Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Andrey completed post-doctoral training in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine while earning a Master of Health Sciences at Yale, where he is an Assistant Professor, directs an Advanced Apnea Management Program, and is a clinician-scientist.

As an investigator, Andrey aims to personalize the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) through research that leads to empathic, personalized, and effective care. His work focuses on translating novel physiological insights from OSA phenotypes and endotypes to improve patient symptoms, adherence to treatment, and cardiovascular risk. Career development awards from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (K23, NHLBI), The Parker B. Francis Foundation (PBF), and the Robert E. Leet and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust support his research.

Andrey is trained and inspired by his mentors, including Dr. Klar Yaggi, MD, MPH (Yale), Drs. Andrew Wellman, MD, PhD , and Scott Sands, PhD (Mass General Brigham), and Nancy Redeker, RN, PhD (University of Connecticut).  He is humbled and honored to receive the 2024 James B. Skatrud Award and grateful to his mentors, colleagues, patients, and family.

Description:

The award is intended to recognize the career accomplishments to date and future promise of a new investigator working in the broad area of respiratory neurobiology and sleep, which includes control of breathing, sleep mechanisms, and sleep-disordered breathing. This may include work at the basic, clinical, epidemiological, or other levels.

This award recognizes a new investigator who is beyond formal training, but not yet fully established. It is not intended for well-established investigators. It is also not intended as recognition for a single project, but rather for overall accomplishments and future potential. There are no citizenship requirements for this award.  The awardee will be expected to make a short presentation about their research at the SRN Assembly Membership Meeting. The awardee will receive a framed certificate and a monetary award of up to $1000.

Eligibility:

• Nominees cannot be at a rank higher than Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
• Ph.D. or other non-physician scientists should be no more than seven years beyond the completion of their doctoral or terminal research degree at the time of application.
• Physician-scientists (M.D.) should be no more than seven years beyond clinical training (residency, fellowship) at the time of application
• Exceptions may be made for Nominees who have taken significant time away from their academic career; however, this must be pre-emptively discussed with the Planning Committee Chair.
• Nominees should have more than one first-authored paper that is considered to advance the science of respiratory neurobiology or sleep.
• Nominee and Nominator(s) must be ATS members.
• Nominee must be able to attend the ATS International Conference.
• Nomination of international candidates or those from underrepresented minority groups is encouraged. Details may be provided in the nomination letter and/or the candidate’s statement.

Nomination Submission Documents:

• A summary of the candidate’s accomplishments in the attached bio-sketch format.
• A statement by the candidate of his/her career goals and the potential of his/her research to advance the field of sleep and respiratory neurobiology (maximum 1 page). Candidates are encouraged to explicitly describe their achievements in terms of the scoring criteria (e.g., total grant funding, publications, SRN/ATS participation or leadership).
• Nominating letter by a mentor (or mentors), which directly addresses the scoring criteria and academic potential

Evaluation Criteria:

Applicants are scored using a 1-5 rating system (with 5 being the best) in each of the following categories. A weighted average will be calculated for each category:

0.2 Grant Funding

0.1 Publications - total (quality & quantity)

0.3 Publications - original research – first, senior or corresponding author

0.1 Nomination Letter(s)

0.1 Personal Statement

0.1 Participation in SRN and ATS

0.1 Leadership Potential

View Previous Award Recipients

2023- Christopher Nikolaus Schmickl, MD, PhD 

2022 - Anna Michelle May, MD, MS
2021 - Lucas Donovan, MD, MS
2020 -  Tetyana Kendzerska, MD, PhD
2019 - Andrew W. Varga, MD, PhD
2018 - Camilla Hoyos, BSc (Hons), MPH, PhD
2017 - Jessie P. Bakker, PhD
2016 - Bradley A. Edwards, PhD
2015 - Ching Li Chai-Coetzer, MBBS, FRACP, PhD
2014 - Robert L. Owens, MD
2013 - Jonathan C. Jun, MD
2012 - Silke Ryan, MD
2011 - Luciano Drager, MD
2010 - Michael Arzt, MD
2009 - Amy Jordan, MD
2008 - Sanjay Patel, MD, MS
2007 - Malcolm Kohler, MD
2006 - Vsevold Polotsky, PhD
2005 - Atul Malhotra, MD