Forbeck Forums
Promoting advances in cancer research through collaboration.
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Scholar Award Application


Application Process

  THE APPLICATION WINDOW IS NOW CLOSED

The Foundation is looking for outstanding junior clinical or post-doctoral fellows to attend the Forbeck Forums.

The Forbeck Foundation is accepting applications for the following meetings:

During the meeting, recipients of the award have an unrivaled opportunity to interact with international experts in their particular field of cancer research. The meeting chairs will be responsible for bringing together a small group of international experts in the field to debate the topic and present their latest data to the attendees in a private setting. The meeting is held in a “think-tank” environment where active discussion of new ideas and concepts is promoted. Participation is by invitation only.

  • Scholars may include post-doctoral fellows and clinicians in the early phases of their career. *Independent investigators should be no further than their first 4 years of appointment.
  • Scholars must be able to attend the annual Forum in Lake Geneva, WI in early November.
  • Applications are welcome from all nationalities, the only restriction being that candidates must be able to communicate in English due to the interactive nature of the meeting.

In addition, award recipients will be invited to participate in the Foundation’s Scholar Retreats for the subsequent three years. This gives them further opportunities to interact with their peers and meet with different groups of international cancer experts. Existing awardees have found these interactions invaluable in developing collaborations as well as opening up a variety of career opportunities. Joining this group also offers awardees the opportunity of being able to apply for other programs sponsored by the Foundation that are only open to Forbeck Scholars.

During this three-year period, where you are interacting with your peers, the Foundation will pay all of your expenses to attend the meetings and offer a stipend to individuals at the end of their tenure period.

What you will need to complete the application:

  • Which meeting are you applying for.
  • Submission Title.
  • Reason for application (please explain in no more than 200 words your reason for wanting to attend the Forum this year.
  • Summarize your current research interests in no more than 200 words.
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY: Include: Training, Positions and honors, Selected publications, and research support. Please do not include teaching in the CV. Append the relevant information to the application form using Arial font 11 regular. Attach as a PDF.
  • LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION : Each applicant should include a letter of recommendation from an individual who knows their work well. Please attached a letter on the appropriate Institutional letterhead.
  • HEADSHOT: Please submit a headshot so that we may include awardee photos in our newsletters, websites and social media outlets. Please ensure your photo is the highest resolution (300 DPI) and a minimum of 1000 pixels wide.

Past Award Winners

Year Scholar Institution
1989 Stephen Chanock, MD National Cancer Institute
1990 Robert Saylors, MD Arkansas Children's Hospital
1991 David Fisher, MD, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital
1992 Gregory Plautz, MD Cleveland Clinic
1993 Daniel Wechsler, MD, PhD Emory University
1994 Elizabeth Yang, MD, PhD Children's National
1995 Robin Hanson, MD, PhD Mercy Clinic
1996 Rachel Altura, MD Rhode Island Hospital
1996 Julie Park, MD Seattle Children's Hospital
1997 Fotis Asimakopoulos University of Wisconsin
1997 David Crawford, MD, PhD Oklahoma University
1998 Scott Dessain, MD, PhD Lankenau Institute for Medical Research
1998 Chenggang Li, PhD Harvard Medical School
1999 Hanno Hock, MD, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital
1999 Owen A. O'Connor, MD, PhD Columbia University
2000 Philip Beckhove, MD, PhD National Center for Biotechnology Information
2000 Francesco Galimi, MD, PhD University of Sassari Medical
2000 Catherine Ju-Ying Wu, MD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2001 David Tuveson, MD, PhD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2002 Alison Bertuch, MD, PhD Baylor College of Medicine
2002 Jan Karlseder, PhD The Salk Institute
2002 Masashi Narita, MD, PhD UK Cambridge Institute
2003 James Amatruda, MD, PhD University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2003 Christopher Bakkenist, PhD University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
2003 Elsa Flores, PhD MD Anderson Cancer Center
2003 Norman Sharpless, MD University of North Carolina
2004 Edward Attiyeh, MD Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2004 Nabeel Bardeesy, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital
2004 Anthony Letai, MD, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2004 Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD Vanderbilt University
2005 Kimberly Kelly, PhD University of Virginia
2005 Ingo K. Mellinghoff, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
2005 Michael Safran, PhD Sheba Cancer Research Center
2005 Benjamin B. Williams, PhD Darmouth Medical School
2006 Carla F. Bender Kim, PhD Children’s Hospital Boston
2006 Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD Harvard Cancer Center
2006 Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD Moores UCSD Cancer Center
2006 Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD Stanford School of Medicine
2007 Kristina Cole, MD, PhD Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2007 Jun Lu, PhD Yale University
2007 Carl Novina, MD, PhD Harvard University
2007 Andrea Ventura, MD, PhD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
2008 Joshua Brody, MD Mount Sinai Hospital
2008 Russell Jones, PhD McGill University
2008 Stefanie Sarantopoulos, MD, PhD Duke University
2008 Lili Yang, PhD University of California Los Angeles
2009 Oliver Ayrault, PhD Institute Curie
2009 Oren Becher, MD Duke University
2009 Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD University of California San Diego
2009 Chang-Hyuk Kwon, PhD Ohio State University Medical Center
2010 Benjamin P. Berman, PhD USC Epigenome Center
2010 Derek Y. Chiang, PhD Novartis
2010 Sharon J. Diskin, PhD Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2010 Chris Putnam, PhD Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
2011 Grant Challen, PhD Washington University
2011 Gary Hon, PhD University of California San Diego
2011 Alvaro Rada-Iglesias, PhD Stanford University
2011 Chris Vakoc, MD, PhD Cold Spring Harbor
2012 Mohit Jain, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School
2012 Julie-Aurore Losman, MD, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2012 Kathryn E. Wellen, PhD University of Pennsylvania
2012 Hao Zu, MD Harvard Medical School
2013 Maria-Francis Artega, King’s College London
2013 Cory M. Johannessen, PhD The Broad Institute
2013 Kristopher A. Sarosiek, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2013 Kris Cameron Wood, PhD Duke University
2014 Rosandra Kaplan, MD National Cancer Institute
2014 Chad Pecot, MD University of North Carolina
2014 Mario Shields, PhD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2014 Louise van der Weyden, PhD Sanger Institute
2015 Esra Akbay, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2015 Annette Kunkele, MD University Hospital Berlin
2015 Shannon Maude, MD Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2015 Stefani Spranger, PhD University of Chicago
2016 Uri Ben-David, PhD Broad Institute
2016 Lilian Kabeche, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital
2016 Mia Levine, PhD University of Pennsylvania
2016 Stefano Santaguida, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2016 Jason Sheltzer, PhD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2016 Neil Umbreit, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2017 Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2017 Donita Brady, PhD University of Pennsylvania
2017 W. Clay Gustafson, MD, PhD University of California San Francisco
2017 Mara Sherman, PhD Oregon Health & Sciences University
2018 Kristopher Bosse, MD Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2018 Vivian Chang, MD UCLA
2018 Junne Kamihara, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2018 Daniela Robles-Espinoza, PhD National University of Mexico
2019 Danfeng Cai, PhD National Institute of Health
2019 Peter Ly, PhD UT Southwestern
2019 Kathleen Xie, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2019 Issam Ben-Sahra, PhD Northwestern University
2019 Takahiro Ito, PhD Broad Institute
2019 Mitchell Machiela, ScD, MPH National Institute of Health
2019 Elma Zaganjor, PhD Harvard University
2019 Laura Banaszynski, PhD UT Southwestern
2019 Jessica Foster, MD Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2019 Cassie Kline, MD, MAS University of California San Francisco
2019 Nneka Mbah, PhD University of Michigan
2019 Jay Sarthy, PhD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2019 Shruti Bhatt, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2019 Danielle Shin, MD, PhD Stanford University
2019 Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2019 Peter van Galen, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital
2019 Floris Barthel, MD The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
2019 Marta Potoczny, PhD National Institute of Health
2019 Enzo Tedone, PhD UT Southwestern
2019 Tianpeng Zhang, PhD University of Pennsylvania
2020 Elena Piskounova, PhD Weill Cornell Medicine
2020 Jatin Roper, MD Duke University
2020 Sharanya Sivanand, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 Kirsten Bryant, PhD University of North Carolina
2020 Cihangir Duy, PhD Weill Cornell Medical
2020 Peter Winter, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 Melinda Biernacki, MD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2020 Tae Kon Kim Vanderbilt University
2020 Armin Rashidi, MD, PhD University of Minnesota
2020 Brooke Emerling, PhD Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
2020 Andrew Venteicher, MD, PhD University of Minnesota
2020 Mark W. Zimmerman, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2020 Semir Bayez, PhD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2020 Defne Bayik, PhD Cleveland Clinic Foundation
2020 Camille Jacqueline, PhD University of Pittsburgh
2020 Jessie Brown, PhD Columbia University
2020 Adam David Durbin, MD, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute
2020 Loretta Li, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
2020 Vajira Weerasekara, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital