• Volunteer
• Mentoring
• Outreach
• Scholarship
• Awards

Awards and Scholarships presented at the Annual Banquet

Scholarships

Scholarships are given to women at community colleges (De Anza or Foothill) who are in a STEM discipline and hope to transfer to a 4-year university. Applicants are chosen each year by our scholarship committee and are announced at the spring Banquet.

Kristi Lin Chrispell Forbes Memorial Scholarship
This Palo Alto chapter scholarship commemorates Kristi Lin Chrispell Forbes, PhD, who died in a car accident in April 2003. Dr. Forbes, the quintessential researcher-scientist, studied the cell cycle of caulobacter and the fission yeast, S. Pombe.

She received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry at Well College where she graduated summa cum laude, then earned her doctorate in Genetics at Harvard University. She had recently completed a post-doctoral position at Stanford investigating genetics and the cell cycle. At 32, she had just gotten married.

Dr. Forbes was a member of AWIS and active as a science fair judge at the Synopsis Championship and at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. She was a violinist member of teh Peninsula Orchestra, a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and an avid dancer and skier. She is greatly missed by her husband, family, and friends.

• 2011 Reta Sarsam, De Anza College
• 2010 Shaoai Yan, De Anza College
• 2009 Rachel Alice Silili Mbassa, Foothill College
• 2008 Debra Schlee, Foothill College
• 2007 Uyen Pham, De Anza College
• 2006 Bonnie A. Bea, De Anza College
• 2004 Teresa Kinnet, De Anza College

Iris Ferber Memorial Scholarship
Iris Ferber, born on March 29, 1965, grew up in Schwetzingen, Germany. A talented woman scientist, she embodied the spirit and mission of AWIS- mentoring, community service, and excellence in science. Iris pursued her university degree in human biology and Marburg University and fell in love with biology research. she received her Ph.D. from German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg where she discovered a novel mechanism fo T cell tolerance. The work, published in Science in 1993, is still considered a seminal result in the field. She did a post-doc at Stanford University, where she tested a hypothesis that the proinflammatory cytokine interferon gamma was critical for autoimmune diseases like MS and diabetes. Again, her results culminated in a seminal paper showing that this very popular theory was not true. Iris was not dissuaded by the naysayers who did not want to believe this important finding. She always pursued the truth, trusted the data, and encouraged her fellow scientists to do the same in their interpretation of science.

Iris fell in love with California and went to work as a senior fellow at DNAX Institute. She chose to work in drug discovery research at Geron and then at Sierra Biosource, rising in just a fwe years from scientist to director level before becoming the Chief Technical Officer of a spin-off company from Sierra Biosource. She finally became Director of Pre-Clnical Pathology at Anesiva in South San Francisco. Her commitment to the education of young scientists and women scientists was evident in her volunteer work with AWIS and her role as Secretary of the AWIS Palo Alto Chapter. It was also evident in her daily life, through dedicated mentoring of undergraduates, graduate students, and helping those making career transitions. She loved science and her eyes would light up when she talked about her work and helping people.

• 2009-2011 Combined Chrispell/Ferber Scholarship
• 2008 Suiting He, Foothill College
• 2007 Nithakan Chou, De Anza College

Fong-Yi (Caroline) Bih Memorial Scholarship
Fong-Yi (Caroline) Bih served as a Board member for Palo Alto AWIS from 2001-2004. She was Chapter Vice-President, Co-Chaired the Mentoring Program, served on the Program Committee and was an active Outreach volunteer, sharing with kids and younger scientists the excitement of scientific discovery

In 2002, Caroline joined the Chinese Bioscience Association. There, she hosted a research conference on SARS and organized 'Bioscience Careers in the 21st Century', a conference for high school students. She was a moderator of an entrepreneur panel at the first CBA Boot Camp. Early in 2007, Caroline became President-elect of CBA. She had plans for a mentor program for CBA members which unfortunately she did not have time to develop.

Caroline grew up in Taiwan and had an adventurous spirit. She received her Ph.D. at UC Riverside and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. She worked as a molecular biologist at PPD Discovery and at Microgenetics. She was a great friend and colleague who was engaged a few months before she fell ill.

The Fong-Yih-(Caroline)Bih Memorial Scholarship was establieshed by the Palo Alto AWIS Chapter and Chinese Bioscience Association, to honour our friend. She passed away on May 31, 2007 due to brain cancer at the age of 45.

• 2011 Lina Ma, Foothill College
• 2010 Millicent Bogue, Foothill College
• 2009 Marisol Patino-Orozoco, De Anza College
• 2008 Quynh Mai Nguyen, De Anza College

Palo Alto Scholarship 1997-2007

• 2007 Claudia Caballero, De Anza College
• 2006 Nguyen N. Nguyen, De Anza College
• 2005 Po Chi Ceinlus Wong, De Anza College
• 2004 Teresa Kinnet, De Anza College
• 2003 Carole Foster, De Anza College
• 2002 Janice Chan, De Anza College
• 2001 Giselle Sylvester, De Anza College
• 2000 Monglan Duong, Foothill College
• 2000 Vankhanh Tran, Foothill College
• 1999 Alison Kang, De Anza College
• 1999 Mihalia Popescu, Foothill College
• 1998 Lan-Chih Wang, De Anza College
• 1998 Sophia Bornstein, Foothill College
• 1997 Trang Vo, De Anza College
• 1997 Diana Wiszowaty, Foothill College

Past Award Recipients

Distinguished Professional Award

• 2011 Patricia Chandler Seawell, Ph.D.
• 2010 Toby Beth Freedman, Ph.D.
• 2009 Sherrie Fasola Wilkins, Ph.D.
• 2008 Doris E. Davis, RN, BSN
• 2007 Monica A. Rosoff, Genentech
• 2006 Audrey S. Erbes
• 2005 Carol Muller, Ph.D., Mentornet
• 2004 Susan L. Bernhard, Ph.D., Elan Pharmaceuticals
• 2003 Krishna Ghosh, Ph.D., Agilent Corp.
• 2002 Elise Brownell, Ph.D., Bayor Corp.
• 2001 Coreen Booth, B.Sc., Consultant
• 2000 Amy E. Ryken, M.P.H., BBEI and Laney College

Ellen Weaver Award

• 2011 Angelique Y. Louie, Ph.D., UC Davis
• 2010 Nadine C. Gassner, Ph.D.
• 2009 Juliet V. Spencer, Ph.D.
• 2008 Angela I.M. Barth, Ph.D., Stanford University
• 2007 Adina Paytan, Ph.D., Stanford University
• 2006 Wendy B. Levine, Ph.D., Genemed Biotechnologies
• 2005 Rebecca MacKenzie, M.S., Roche Bioscience
• 2004 Maureen A. Sharberg, Ph.D., San Jose State University
• 2003 Katy Kuo Korsmeyer, Ph.D., SCCBEP
• 2002 Kimberly Tanner, Ph.D., UCSF
• 2001 Sharron Penn, Ph.D., Aeomica
• 2000 Kathryn M. Stephens, Ph.D., GeneTrace
• 1999 Rosario C. Denoga, Bayer Corp.
• 1998 Aurora Sosa, M.A., Bayer Corp.
• 1997 Rona G. Giffard, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University
• 1996 Deborah Bravo, Ph.D., Bayer Corp.

Judith Poole Award

• 2011 Tonya L. Kuhl, Ph.D., UC Davis
• 2010 Patricia R. Burchat, Ph.D.
• 2009 Helen E. Moore, Ph.D.
• 2008 Marilyn Winkeby, Ph.D., Stanford University
• 2007 Ann Reisenauer, Ph.D.,
• 2006 Gail Schechter, Ph.D., BioIntelligence
• 2005 Dora Games, Ph.D., Elan Pharmaceuticals
• 2004 Elaine S. Yamaguchi, Ph.D., Chevron Oronite
• 2003 Carolyn M. Kane, Ph.D., UC Berkeley
• 2002 Sheila McCormick, Ph.D., UCDA-ARS
• 2001 Paula Jardieu, Ph.D., Genentech
• 2000 Paula J. Sadle, Ph.D., Bayer Corp.
• 1999 Cherrill M. Spencer, Ph.D., SLAC
• 1998 Phyllis Gardner, M.D., Alza Corp.
• 1997 Kathelyn Sue Steimer, PH.D., Chiron Corp.
• 1996 Lynda J. Goff, Ph.D., UC Santa Cruz
• 1995 Ellen Weaver, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, San Jose State University