Five early-career physician-scientists at Duke University School of Medicine will each receive $120,000 annually for three years through the 2026 Physician-Scientist Strong Start Awards, the school announced Thursday, May 21.
The recipients are Eugene Vaios, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology; Christopher Reed, MD, assistant professor of surgery; Michael Forrester, MD/PhD, medical instructor in the Department of Medicine; George Cortina, MD/PhD, assistant professor in anesthesiology; and Krista Haines, DO, assistant professor of surgery.
Funded by the Nanaline H. Duke Fund, the awards total $360,000 per recipient over three years. The 2026 cohort is the first funded under the Fund's expanded $11.45 million, five-year commitment announced in January 2026.
"The Fund's expanded support for OPSD programs and the dean's bridge funding program provides essential stability in a challenging research climate," said Rasheed Gbadegesin, MD, associate dean for physician-scientist development at Duke. "Their generosity helps us drive discovery."
The five new awardees bring the program's cumulative total to 51 faculty supported since Strong Start launched in 2017. According to Gbadegesin, over 80 percent of past awardees remain active in research, and collectively they have secured more than 135 federal and private grants.
The program addresses a national workforce gap. Physician-scientists now represent just 1.5 percent of the U.S. biomedical workforce, down from 4.7 percent four decades ago.
Four more annual cohorts will be funded under the Nanaline H. Duke Fund's five-year commitment.
