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Kessler Staff Honored at Rutgers Medical School Graduation and Awards Ceremony

By Nicky Miller

 

Screenshot of a webinar meeting with the faces of many participants This year’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School graduation and award ceremony was held virtually, honoring several Kessler Foundation staff members for their work in rehabilitation research. The “Class of 2020 Graduation Celebration” was held in June and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was moved online.

Diplomas were given to five Kessler postdoctoral fellows:

• Fatma Eren, MD, Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research and

   Outcomes and Assessment Research

• Nathan Hogaboom, PhD, Centers for Spinal Cord Injury

   Research and Outcomes and Assessment Research

• Katie Lancaster, PhD, Center for Traumatic Brain Injury Research

• Xuan Liu, PhD, Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering Research

• Fan Zhang, PhD, Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering Research

In addition to her diploma, Dr. Lancaster received the “Inspiration of the Year” award, and Dr. Guang Yue, director of the Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering Research was named “Mentor of the Year.”

“It was a bittersweet moment,” said Dr. Hogaboom, “I wished the event could have been in person, but considering the situation, it’s still a great feeling to witness the success of my peers. I was honored to be recognized for my work and to be in the presence of people who are such hardworking individuals.”

Awards and diplomas were presented by members of the program committee and program directors, which included Kessler Foundation’s chief medical officer, Dr. Steven Kirshblum and Dr. John DeLuca, the Foundation’s senior vice president of research and training. Dr. Kirshblum is the chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers, where several of the Foundation’s clinicians and researchers teach at the Newark campus, including Dr. DeLuca.

This annual event is an opportunity to commemorate the postdoctoral training program and showcase the research projects of the postdoctoral fellows, and is proudly supported by Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and Kessler Foundation.