NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

2024 Awardees to Present

ODP Selects Three Speakers for Early-Stage Investigator Lectures

Dr. Schneider
Dr. Andrea Schneider

NIH’s Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) announces its week of Early-Stage Investigator Lectures (ESIL) featuring the 2024 awardees—Drs. Andrea Schneider, Jessica Perkins and Benjamin Xu. Their lectures will take place via Zoom at 11 a.m. ET on May 6, 7 and 8, respectively.

ODP’s ESIL recognizes early-career prevention scientists who are poised to become future leaders in prevention research. 

For more information about this annual award, visit prevention.nih.gov/ESIL.

The week will begin with a lecture by Schneider on Monday, May 6. Her presentation, “Powered by Numbers: Leveraging Epidemiology to Foster Prevention of Traumatic Brain Injury-Related Sequelae,” will discuss the current epidemiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and efforts focused on improving the characterization of lifetime history of TBI in ongoing prospective cohort studies in diverse populations. 

Dr. Perkins
Dr. Jessica Perkins

Read more lecture details at https://go.nih.gov/DqHVHlf

Schneider is an assistant professor of neurology in the Division of Neurocritical Care at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the department of biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Perkins will give her lecture, “Misperceived Social Norms as Drivers of HIV Prevention: Exploring Opportunities for Individual and Social Change,” on Tuesday, May 7. She will describe misperceived HIV-related norms and why these misperceptions matter for multiple levels of HIV prevention, as well as how to enhance the uptake of HIV-related health behavior interventions. 

Find more information about the talk at https://go.nih.gov/wPHIwpG.

Dr. Benjamin Xu
Dr. Benjamin Xu

Perkins is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development and serves as core faculty at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Her work has been funded by an NIH Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. 

On Wednesday, May 8, Xu will give the final ESIL, covering recent advances in early detection and prevention of primary angle closure glaucoma using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and artificial intelligence (AI). His presentation, “Early Detection and Prevention of Angle Closure Glaucoma Using OCT and Artificial Intelligence,” will highlight how combining OCT imaging and AI can help overcome existing clinical limitations. 

For details about his lecture, visit https://go.nih.gov/4BQ4uOw.

Xu is the chief of the Glaucoma Service at the University of Southern California Roski Eye Institute. His work has been funded by the National Eye Institute.

To register for each lecture, visit https://go.nih.gov/3lSjcg6. The lectures will be recorded and available on ODP’s website approximately four weeks after each session.

The NIH Record

The NIH Record, founded in 1949, is the biweekly newsletter for employees of the National Institutes of Health.

Published 25 times each year, it comes out on payday Fridays.

Assistant Editor: Eric Bock
Eric.Bock@nih.gov (link sends e-mail)

Staff Writer: Amber Snyder
Amber.Snyder@nih.gov (link sends e-mail)