Amanda Recognized with the Binford Award

APRIL 5, 2024

The Lawrenz Lab is proud to announce that Dr. Amanda Brady was awarded the The John Richard Binford Memorial Award!

The Binford Memorial Award honors a doctoral degree recipient who excels in scholarship and has contributed to other areas within the discipline such as leadership, teaching, or service.

As a graduate student, Amanda investigated how Yersinia pestis alters the host immune response to promote the progression of disease. Her research has expanded our knowledge on the host-pathogen interactions during plague and how our host innate immune system responds to infection. Her research was recognized with an NIH T32 fellowship, an American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Future Leaders Mentoring Fellowship (FLMF), and a Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship. Her Ph.D. dissertation work contributed to five published manuscripts, and she was invited to give oral presentations on her research at multiple prestigious scientific conferences.

Amanda also has a passion for diversity and inclusion and was extensively involved in mentoring and leadership in community outreach programs during her graduate career. As a T32 fellow, she organized the 2022 Inflammation and Pathogenesis T32 Colloquium, which highlighted the ongoing innovative immunology research at UofL. She has mentored multiple trainees in microbiology, including two high school students who were fellows of the Louisville Science Pathway (LSP) program, a program designed to expose high school students to research and future career opportunities in STEM. In addition to her LSP activities, Amanda mentored other local high school students from underrepresented backgrounds with science fair projects for the Louisville Regional Science & Engineering Fair.  She was also a mentor for UofL’s BIOMED-PREP program, providing guidance and support for underrepresented post-baccalaureate students to successfully transition into PhD programs.

Amanda was the second President for the UofL Chapter of the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), the only active chapter in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. She was also the second student to become a voting member of the UofL Institutional Biosafety Committee, helping to ensure that research at the university was done safely.

Congratulations on your well-deserved award, Amanda!