SIVB Student Award Program

While the deadline for most of the 2026 Student Awards has passed, The following two awards are still open for submissions through February 27, 2026:

The Honor B. Fell Award
The Gordon Sato and Wally McKeehan Award

Please see the requirements for these individual awards below.

What are the Student Awards?

The SIVB’s Student Award Program provides recognition and financial support for students who have contributed to and made outstanding achievements in the field of in vitro biology. Available awards and application criteria for the 2026 In Vitro Biology Meeting are below.

Please note that student applicants for the 2026 Awards must attend and present their work in person at the 2026 In Vitro Biology Meeting in Reno, Nevada from June 6-10, 2026.

 

Students applying must submit:

Every student award application must include the following:

  1. An Official Meeting Abstract Submission and completed registration to the SIVB Annual Meeting;
  2. A letter (4-page maximum) indicating names of award(s) applying for; narrative of methods, results, and supporting figures/tables as appropriate; and
  3. Research director/supervisor certification that the work was performed by the student applicant.

In addition, some student awards require additional materials to be submitted. These items are indicated below under each respective award.

Student Award Applications should be sent by email to the Student Awards Committee via the SIVB Business Office. The deadline to submit your application for  the 2026 Honor B. Fell or Gordon Sato and Wally McKeehan awards is February 27, 2026.

Students competing for awards may apply for multiple awards, must satisfy specific award criteria, and must present their research at the meeting as scheduled. Winners will be notified prior to the meeting. The student awardees must present their submitted research and be present at the 2026 SIVB Business Meeting on Tuesday evening. Specific requirements for each of the student awards are below. Should you have questions, please contact the SIVB Business Office by email or by phone (410) 969-7940.

SIVB Student Awards

The awards currently available to students in 2026 are:

Gordon Sato and Wally McKeehan Award

This award was established by former students Drs. Gordon Yan and Gloria Zhang, founders of Biovision Inc., to honor their mentors. Both Dr. Sato (1927-2017) and Dr. McKeehan were long time members of the SIVB serving in governing leadership positions, Editors-in-Chief of In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Animal and recipients of the SIVB Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Sato and Dr. McKeehan are best known for innovations in mammalian tissue culture including defined media required for discovery and understanding hormones, growth factors and nutrients that mediate cell to cell communication in the tissue microenvironment in health and disease. Dr. Sato was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1984. Dr. Sato and Dr. McKeehan mentored numerous students who rose to leadership positions in academics, industry, medicine and mentoring internationally.The purpose of the Gordon Sato and Wally McKeehan Award is to support student participation in the annual SIVB meeting. A $500 award each is open to two students annually working with vertebrate or invertebrate cells in vitro.

In addition to the above requirements, students applying must submit:

1. A one-page resume of professional training and publications

2. An estimate of travel expenses to the meeting, and

3. A letter of recommendation from a research advisor.

Honor B. Fell Award

The Honor B. Fell Award was established in recognition of the achievements of the late Dame Honor Bridget Fell (1900 – 1986). Dr. Fell was a British scientist and zoologist. She was in every sense a pioneer, but especially in the field of tissue culture applied to embryogenesis. As Director of the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England at the age of 27, she at once became a leader in the cultivation of embryonic organs (limb buds, knee joints, mandibular skeletal tissue). Besides her work on bone rudiments, she made important contributions through her studies of skin and mucous membranes. Dame Honor was a leader in European as well as British cell and organ culture, and her influence was strong in North America. The Fell Award recognizes graduate student research accomplishments in the general field of animal organ culture, as demonstrated by presentation of papers at the Annual Meeting of the SIVB. The award consists of a cash prize of $150.