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Four physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have been named 2023 Gerstner Scholars and will receive funding for up to three years to support their research. In addition, one 2020 Gerstner Scholar will receive the highly coveted Gerstner Merit Award. The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program was established 15 years ago to provide exceptionally talented physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) with critical funding. This generous support allows early-career scientists to conduct high-risk, high-reward research and gather the pilot data necessary to apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources. The Gerstner Scholars Program is a model faculty development program for researchers across the continuum at VP&S, providing the foundations to build biomedical research careers. The physician-scientists named as 2023 Gerstner Scholars: Shah Ali, MD Edmond Chan, MD Pamela Good, MD Juan-Manuel Schvartzman, MD, PhD Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, a 2020 Gerstner Scholar, has been awarded the Gerstner Merit Award. In 2014, the Gerstner Family Foundation created the Gerstner Merit Award to provide an additional year of funding for a Gerstner Scholar in his or her third year who has made remarkable strides in research and demonstrated extraordinary growth as an academic biomedical investigator.

Gerstner Philanthropies is proud to announce that two Gerstner Scholars at Dartmouth earned distinction for their undergraduate work. Cady Rancourt, a Dartmouth ’24 Gerstner Scholar has won the “Made at Dartmouth” competition for her video sharing the results of her examination of college teaching practices. Her testimonial was chosen from hundreds across campus for its thoughtful articulation of her research to date. Rancourt was also recently awarded the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship this year, an additional honor which will provide financial and advising support for her work as a research assistant in preparation for undertaking a senior honors thesis. Gavin Fry, a Dartmouth ’25 Gerstner Scholar, has received a Goldwater Scholarship to support his pursuit of a research career in meteorology. As one of 413 students chosen nationally, he will receive up to $7,500 for the academic year. Fry, a sophomore at Dartmouth, will use this scholarship to continue his study of severe weather climatology in the Mid-South. As a first-gen and low income student, Gavin has said that “Coming here—having the resources to succeed, having the help, making the connections—has been instrumental in my ability to succeed, and beyond that, it gave me the confidence to say that I can actually apply to do these things.”

Gerstner Philanthropies is excited to announce that the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core, part of the American Museum of Natural History’s new addition, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, will open to the public on May 4, 2023. This addition will create more than 30 connections among 10 of the Museum’s buildings to improve visitor circulation on campus, and will feature all new exhibition galleries, learning labs and collections facilities. The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core will display over 3,000 objects from the Museum’s research collections and will span across three levels. The Collections Core is designed to showcase the importance of scientific collections as the bedrock on which scientific discoveries stand. The glass panels of the Collections Core will give visitors the opportunity to view scientists in-action working with the specimens on display. Along with the Collections Core, the Gilder Center will also include an all-new insectarium, with the world’s largest live leafcutter ant display, as well as a live butterfly vivarium. “The Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is a glorious new facility that fulfills a critical need at a critical time: to help visitors to understand the natural world more deeply, to appreciate that all life is interdependent, to trust science, and to be inspired to protect our precious planet and its myriad life forms,” said Ellen Futter, President Emerita of the American Museum of Natural History.

Gerstner Philanthropies has made a gift of $166,667 to support the Helping Hands Student Emergency Fund at The City College of New York. Helping Hands provides one-time assistance to students facing one-time emergencies with the goal to help college students continue through to graduation. The grant will assist students for the remainder of 2023. “We are grateful to be able to partner with the Gerstner Philanthropies team, which allows us to expand on the important work of providing emergency support to our students to maintain momentum in their college career. Student retention is a key goal of City College,” said Dee Dee Mozeleski, senior advisor to the president, and vice president and executive director of The Foundation for City College.

As of March 1, 2023, Gerstner Philanthropies has awarded $7.9 million in Helping Hands funds to 24 social service organizations and colleges, a 47% increase from last year’s grantmaking. $7.3 million will expand support to existing emergency grant programs at 19 grantees across the country, with an additional $0.6 million supporting new partnerships with public colleges within the New York City area. Over $0.7 million of the awarded funds will support a new program capacity-building initiative at seven organizations with the goal of improving Helping Hands program efficiency and expanding its reach to serve more people in need.