Center Line Newsletter

Volume 18, Number 3, September 2007

CAS Graduate Students Receive RSA Awards

Graduate Students Katie Kelms and Tiffany Wills

        Two graduate students working in the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies (CAS) received awards for their outstanding research at the 30th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) scientific meeting in Chicago.
Pharmacology graduate student Katie Kelm and neurobiology graduate student Tiffany Wills received the two most prestigious RSA awards given annually to pre-doctoral graduate students across the country. Kelm won the 2007 RSA Enoch Gordis Research Recognition Award, and Wills received the 1st Annual RSA Memorial Award.
         Kelm, working with Drs. Hugh Criswell and George Breese in the neuropharmacology section, won the Gordis Award for best student poster presentation at July’s meeting. Her abstract entitled, “The role of inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate and ryanodine receptors in ethanol-enhanced GABA release,” was selected following rigorous scientific, aesthetic and oral reviews by a committee of esteemed scientists. Kelm’s primary paper on this work has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
         Wills, working with Drs. Darin Knapp, David Overstreet and George Breese in neuropharmacology, won the RSA Memorial Award for her symposium presentation, “Are adolescent rats more sensitive to the effects of multiple withdrawals from ethanol?” This new award is presented to one pre- and one post-doc student each year and is awarded in honor of eminent RSA members who have recently passed away. Wills has a manuscript in preparation for this work that will be submitted in August.
         This year’s RSA meeting had over 1500 attendees. UNC CAS graduate students and faculty presented their research in 10 symposia and 34 posters during the five-day event. The RSA provides a forum for communication among researchers who share common interests in alcoholism. The Society’s purpose is to promote research that can lead the way toward prevention and treatment of alcoholism.