OBSSR Holds 10th White Riley Honors

Dr. Mark Hayward (c) receives the Excellence Lecture Award from Dr. Bill Riley, director, OBSSR, and OBSSR’s Dr. Erica Spotts, who chaired the Excellence Lecture selection committee.

Dr. Matilda White Riley (1911-2004) was a celebrated scientist and member of the National Academy of Sciences whose transformative work and leadership in the behavioral and social sciences at NIH is honored annually by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. This year marked the 10th year OBSSR has celebrated the NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors.

The winner of the 2017 Excellence Lecture Award is Dr. Mark Hayward, professor of sociology and director of the Population Health Initiative at the University of Texas. 

OBSSR’s Riley (third from l) and Dr. Bill Elwood (r), chair of paper competition selection, join presenters (from l) Dr. Erika Fuchs, Dr. Jacqueline Torres, Dr. Emily Hohman and Dr. Frank Infurna.

“Dr. Hayward’s research examines the complex linkages between mortality and social influences such as educational attainment,” said OBSSR director Dr. Bill Riley. “His research attempts to explain the complexity and dynamic interplay in understanding health inequities—an application of behavioral and social sciences which, in many ways, honors Dr. White Riley’s own research and leadership mission at the NIH.”

Also presenting at this year’s celebration were the winners of the 2017 Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigators Paper Competition, awarded for recent influential papers published by early stage investigators. The presenters included Dr. Erika Fuchs, University of Texas Medical Branch; Dr. Emily Hohman, Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Frank Infurna, Arizona State University; and Dr. Jacqueline Torres, University of California, San Francisco.