The deadline has been extended to July 12 to apply for the University of Illinois Cancer Center Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellowship program.
The program strives to meet an imperative need to train exceptionally talented and diverse scientists engaged in cancer health disparities research, addressing cross-cutting health disparity issues across the cancer continuum from etiology, primary prevention, and treatment to survivorship. Our aims are to ensure that trainees understand the effects of environmental, molecular, and social determinants of health and are thereby poised to advance new, innovative basic, clinical, translational, or epidemiological research to bridge the current gaps in knowledge on both the causes of cancer disparities and methods to translate findings into effective cancer prevention and control programs, drug development and therapies.
This award will support health disparities and/or inequities-related cancer research. The successful candidate will be required to articulate a strong commitment to conducting research in cancer health disparities and have a goal of obtaining a (career) position that would enable him/her/them to actively participate in initiatives aimed at eliminating cancer health disparities.
Eligibility Requirements
All applicants must meet the following:
- Successfully completed a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, or equivalent) in fields related to STEM research, public health, pharmacy, dentistry, or medicine.
- Postdoctoral appointment at UIC for <4 years. Candidates can be in any University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) college.
- Trainee member of the Cancer Center
Proposed research must focus on cancer health disparities and/or inequities. It may include but is not limited to:
- Etiology of cancer
- Survivorship (drug discovery and toxicity, lymphedema, pain management)
- Genetics/epigenetic drivers of incidence
- Identify new molecular targets that underlie disparities in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis
- Advance novel cancer therapeutic approaches through drug development and early-stage clinical trials
Budget
The budget is $15,000 for one year and may be used for the following:
- Stipend support
- Travel to present at a disparities-related conference
- Support a disparities project at one of the Cancer Center Shared Research Cores
Apply
To apply, please click the button above or click here and provide the following information:
- NIH biosketch
- Personal Statement (1 page)
- Letter of Support from selected Mentor and Co-Mentor (if there is one)
- Letter of Support from the Shared Resource Core Director for the proposed project
- Letter of Recommendation from PhD mentor
- Lay summary of proposal (30 lines)
- Rationale and scope of the proposed research project (1-2 pages)
- Budget with Justification (1 page)
*Letters of recommendation should be submitted to [email protected] on your behalf.
Key Dates
- June 30, 2024, Applications due
- August 1, 2024, Awardee notified
- August 16, 2024, anticipated award start
Warnecke Fellow Expectations
- Present their research at the University of Illinois Cancer Center Gary Kruh Symposium
- Meet with or provide a written letter of thanks to the fellowship donor
- Allow their name and image to be associated with the Warnecke Fellowship in Cancer Center media materials and website
- Submit a final report of their project
About Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, Professor Emeritus
Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, was a longtime University of Illinois Cancer Center member and a national leader in cancer control research.
For more than 40 years, Warnecke conducted research and community outreach that provided immeasurable service to women with cancer. Long before “health disparities” became a research category among federal and nonprofit funding agencies, Warnecke was committed to this mission. His effort was in addressing inequities in health outcomes, going well beyond simply identifying risk factors. He worked to develop and implement interventions that made a difference in so many women’s lives.
Early in his career, Warnecke’s research centered on the cancer information needs in Illinois, data systems and cancer surveillance methods that strongly influenced the creation of the state cancer registry in the mid-1980s — a vitally important resource to both practitioners and researchers and key to helping monitor its progress in reducing cancer’s toll.
Warnecke next turned his attention to the considerable problem of smoking among low-educated women, given that more women die from lung cancer than from any other cancer. With a collaborative group of multidisciplinary investigators, Warnecke led a team to develop a set of novel approaches to help women stop smoking.
Warnecke, professor emeritus of epidemiology, public administration and sociology at the UIC, sustained a continuous and high level of funding from the National Cancer Institute. He was particularly skillful in conducting large-scale, multiple-component, community-based investigations, consisting of two program projects — Community Interventions for Cancer Prevention (1986-1992) and Strategies for Smoking Cessation Among Low Educated Women (1993-1998).
As director of the Health Policy Center, Institute for Health Research and Policy, and associate director for Population Health, he led grants for the Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (2003-2015) and the Center for Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities (2009-2015). Warnecke graciously served on the Cancer Center’s NCI ChicagoCHEC Internal Advisory Committee and on the ACS-Illinois Cancer Health Equity Research Center grant Community Advisory Board.
Utilizing the two center grants, Warnecke’s team of researchers worked to better understand why Black women with breast cancer are more likely than their white counterparts to be diagnosed with late-stage, high-grade disease and more aggressive subtypes of breast cancer. The investigations examined multiple potential levels of influence on these disparities, including neighborhood health resources, level of neighborhood social integration and support, and whether patient navigators can improve the timing and quality of treatment of poor women with breast cancer. Warnecke and his colleagues also conducted genetic analyses to help understand these disparities between Black and white women in disease stage and outcomes.
He made a special effort to recruit and mentor junior investigators from underrepresented minority groups. In 1992, he began a federally funded Cancer Education and Career Development training program for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in multidisciplinary cancer control and prevention research, now in its 30th year. He was influential in launching the careers of many researchers who followed in his footsteps to address health disparities.
Although he officially became emeritus in 2007, Warnecke remained actively involved in his pursuit of cancer prevention, and he was continually pursuing innovative research ideas to help improve the lives of those at risk.
Warnecke, who served as associate director of the Cancer Center’s Population Sciences, Cancer Control and Education program, was the recipient of numerous accolades. Among the awards was a gift he received from former Cancer Center Director Robert Winn, MD, at an event at UIC sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research Minorities in Cancer Research annual meeting in 2018. The award recognized Warnecke’s tireless work in cancer disparities research.
Warnecke’s legacy will live on through the countless lives saved due to his work and the hundreds of students, trainees, faculty and staff who have been touched by his experience, mentoring, wisdom and generosity of heart.