Liu, Snaman and Spencer Won Awards at the Celebration of Early Career Investigators
By Rosemary Nabukeera | DF/HCC Communications
NOVEMBER 29, 2019

PhD graduate student Yuxi Liu, MS (HSPH), Jennifer Snaman, MD (DFCI) and Jennifer Spencer, PhD (HSPH) won their awards at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s 7th Annual Celebration of Early Career Investigators in Cancer Research event that was held on November 4, 2019 at Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Yawkey Conference Center and Smith 308. The purpose of the event was to highlight role models of successful interdisciplinary research for early career investigators to follow and to showcase the talent of early career investigators at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) who work in several areas of population science, including epidemiology, biostatistics, outcomes, diversity, and survivorship. Liu was recognized for having the most promising idea, Dr. Snaman for the best poster, and Dr. Spencer for the best oral presentation.
Lorelei Mucci, MPH, ScD (HSPH) — the leader of DF/HCC’s Cancer Epidemiology Program and an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — gave the opening remarks and introduced Irene Ghobrial, MD (DFCI), the event’s keynote speaker. Dr. Ghobrial — a Professor of Medicine at HMS, Director of the Clinical Investigator Research Program at DFCI, and Director of Michele and Stephen Kirsh Laboratory — gave a plenary talk titled: “Prevention of Progression,” and pointed out that she and colleagues have used social media to get a diversified number of patients. In addition, Giovanni Parmigiani, PhD (DFCI) — DF/HCC Associate Director for Population Sciences and a Professor of Biostatistics at HSPH and DFCI— gave the closing remarks. Special thanks to Erica Feick for coordinating the event. Faculty Organizers: Lorelei Mucci, MPH, ScD (HSPH), Giovanni Parmigiani, PhD (DFCI), Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH (BWH).
Below are the poster and oral presentation titles for the winners:
Winner’s Name | Award | Poster/Oral Presentation Title |
Yuxi Liu | Most Promising Idea | The association between somatic mutational profiles and germline polygenic risk scores (PRS) in TCGA |
Jennifer Snaman | Best Poster | MyPref: An Adaptive Conjoint Analysis-based Communication and Cancer Treatment Decision-Making Tool for Adolescents with Advanced Cancer |
Jennifer Spencer | Best Oral Presentation | Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions to Increase HPV Vaccine Coverage |