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CALS Awards: Pound Research and Hemstead Award recipients

Continuing with our celebration of this year’s CALS Awards recipients, we are sharing information about the winners of the Pound Research Award and the Louise Hemstead Leadership Award this week.

Karthik Anantharaman

Karthik Anantharaman, recipient of the Pound Research Award, is an associate professor in the Department of Bacteriology. He studies sulfur metabolism and the roles of bacterial viruses in environments ranging from fresh and marine waters to the human body. His innovative bioinformatic techniques are valuable to his work and hundreds of other scientists who have used his lab’s software packages.

Karthik is a highly collaborative researcher. He has published 43 manuscripts since arriving at UW in 2018 and has received nearly $5 million in grants as a PI and co-PI. His impact is magnified by his mentoring of students and postdoctoral researchers.

Karthik also defined a new scientific staff service position in the department that led to the hiring of Patricia Tran, a bioinformatics scientist whose presence has led to an explosion of bioinformatics applications. His work has led to foundational shifts in how we understand the diversity of life, and he has opened new areas of study by creating novel tools.

Monica White

Monica White, recipient of the Louise Hemstead Leadership Award, is an associate professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and the Gaylord A. Nelson Distinguished Chair in Integrated Environmental Studies with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Through innovative leadership, she fosters support for Black farmers through her work with the National Black Food and Justice Alliance.

Monica is co-creator and national director of the Alliance’s effort to bring agroecology programming to Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are 1890 Land Grant institutions. She served as the Project Lead for the first such Agroecology Center, established at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in November 2022. A second center location is currently being vetted. 

Monica also co-founded the Alliance’s research arm, called Blackademics, which is a group of scholars across a range of disciplines whose mission it is to provide lasting support to community-based organizations that increase access to nutrient-dense foods in Black communities through cooperatives and land acquisition.