Samantha Rincon Sabatino, a third-year PhD candidate in the University of Miami College of Engineering’s (UM CoE) Department of Biomedical Engineering, is among those awarded a prestigious fellowship from National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institue on Deafness and Other Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Rincon has been awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA).
“It is an honor to be chosen for this award because it shows that the highly respected reviewers believe that the work we are doing is innovative and has high clinical significance,” said Rincon. “Also, as a Hispanic woman, I am very proud to be a recipient of this award that promotes diversity of underrepresented groups in biomedical research.
Along with providing continued mentored predoctoral training support, the fellowship will help Rincon gain the necessary experience and independence involved with scientific research. Specifically, the award will support her research on the application of mild therapeutic hypothermia for hearing preservation against noise-induced hearing loss.
“With this project, I hope to expand the limited interventions for prevention or treatment to noise-induced hearing loss,” Rincon said. “As excessive exposure to noise is an unavoidable part of life for people in many different professions, it is important to establish effective therapeutic options to prevent irreversible damage to the inner ear.”
Rincon has been an exemplary and hard-working student, who also completed her undergraduate degree at the UM CoE. Her award follows the prestigious UM Graduate Dean’s Fellowship she received during the first two years of her PhD. She has already presented her PhD work at multiple international conferences, and received prestigious travel awards and highly positive reviews for her work. She also is one of the select doctoral candidates in the U.S. invited to attend the Biology of Inner Ear course this summer at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, which is fully funded by the NIH.
“Samantha has already made great headway on the project, and this NIH award is very well deserved.” said Fabrice Manns, professor and chair of the College of Engineering’s Department Biomedical Engineering. “Samantha has already made great headway on the project, and this NIH award is very well deserved.” “This is yet another example of the benefits of our partnership with the Department of Otolaryngology and the Miami Project.”
The purpose of this Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientists, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research. The F31 is also used to enhance workforce diversity though a separate program.
“I am truly grateful for the excellent mentoring and education I have received within the CoE as both an undergraduate and graduate student,” Rincon said. “These experiences have been instrumental in shaping my research profile and will hopefully help me become a better researcher and mentor. Given these personal experiences, I am confident that the CoE will have continued success in mentoring future researchers and in providing opportunities for collaboration between disciplines.”
