Awards

William E. Cornatzer Chair in Biochemistry Award

Dr. Cornatzer founded the Department of Biochemistry at the University of North Dakota in 1951. He was a pioneer and innovative leader in medical education and biomedical research and scholarship at UND. As Chairman of the department for its first 32 years, he brought the department into national and international prominence, recognized for its teaching and research orientation. Dr. Cornatzer obtained funding for the Ireland Research Laboratory, the first laboratory dedicated to biomedical research on this campus. He also was instrumental in obtaining federal funding leading to the construction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Laboratory near the UND campus. In 1953, Dr. Cornatzer established and supervised the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory at the Grand Forks Clinic (now Altru).

Dr. Cornatzer is fondly remembered by those who knew him for his generosity to students, staff and faculty. He gave unstintingly of his time and counsel to graduate and medical students at UND. The William E. Cornatzer award is given to recognize a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate student who, through their attitude and actions in giving of themselves, makes the community of Grand Forks, including UND and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, a better place to study and grow.  

Latest winner: Jenny Canine 2011

Previous winners:

• Jordan Karlstad 2010
• Chandra Bathula 2009
• Amy Albrecht 2008
• Lei Ding 2007
• Vikram Palamalai 2006
• Lata Balakrishnan 2005

Ya-Pin Lee Graduate Student Award

Ya-Pin Lee, MD, PhD, earned his PhD working with Nobel Laureates Drs. Carl and Gerty Cori at Washington University, St. Louis. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Henry Lardy at the Enzyme Institute in Madison Wisconsin, he joined the UND faculty June 1, 1961. Dr. Lee contributed to the focus of the department on studies of the enzymes involved in energy metabolism. (Dr. Lee transferred from the University of Wisconsin a $12,370 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study "Hormones on Carbohydrate Metabolism.") Dr. Lee passed away in 1978.

The Ya-Pin Lee Award is presented to a BMB graduate student in recognition of research activity and achievement. Factors that are to be given high consideration are

• Attitude toward research
• Individual research efforts
• Research activity that is beneficial to the department in general
• Publications

Latest winner: Chunguang Yan 2011

Previous winners:

• Amy Moritz 2010
• Amy Albrecht 2009
• Biswaranjan Pani 2008
• Sunitha Bollimuntha 2007
• Laura Parnas 2006
• Lata Balakrishnan 2005
• More (1980–2004)