School of Medicine celebrates students, residents, faculty and staff with annual awards

The UC Davis School of Medicine recognized more than 100 students, residents, faculty and staff for outstanding contributions to the medical school as part of its annual awards leading up the School of Medicine’s 55th annual commencement ceremony.

2026 Student Awards

School Of Medicine Medal
Ferheen Abbasi

Golden Goblet Award
Alexandra Diaz

Loren D. Carlson Endowed Scholarship Research Award
Jade Tso

Eli Benjamini Endowed Fund for Biological Sciences
Michelle Wang

O.M.E. Medical Student Scholarship Award
John C. Lew

Rena & Gabriel Smilkstein Humanitarian Award
Tejaswi Adhikari

J.T. Simon Lie, M.D., Memorial Scholarship Award
Araiya L.N. Medlock

Merck Manual Awards
Jingyanshan Li
Nina P. Nguyen
Tiffany L. Wong

David M. Igdaloff, Md & Michael A. Igdaloff Memorial Scholarship Award
Jade E. Regalado

Healing Arts Award
Cica J. Akpovi

Helen McConnell Palthe Fellowship Award
Sujin Jeong

James Franklin McManus Scholarship Award
Sage Dillon

The Johnson Family Scholarship Award
Jace J. Decker

Mansoor Ally Memorial Scholarship Award
Yaseen M. Hakim

Allan T. Nunn, M.D. Memorial Scholarship
Eliseo Garcia

Gold Humanism Honor Society Class Of 2026
Ferheen Abbasi
Tejaswi Adhikari
Griselda Aguilar
Cica Akpovi
Rachel Azar
Erika Boles
Van Duong
Arman Fakharian
Shahbaj Ghotra
Monica Joy
Mustafa Jundi
Venina Kalistratova
Aseem Kelly
Sonam Kumari
Araiye Medlock
Nicole Nagayama
Juliana Novaes
Marlisa Olea-Gallardo
Aneri Patel
Samantha Pena
Jade Regalado
Andrea Rincon
Habib Salamah
Maria Sanchez-Anguiano
Maria Zepeda

Department Awards

Outstanding Medical Student in Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine
Connie Chan
Janelle Lau

Outstanding Medical Student in The Division of Pain Medicine
Sumra Mubarik

Outstanding Medical Student in Dermatology
Aneri B. Patel

Ernest M. Gold Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine
Alexandra P. Diaz
Yaseen M. Hakim
Vikki A. Krysov

Outstanding Medical Student in Child Neurology
Sydney M. Talmi

Outstanding Medical Student in Neurology
Vista Farkhondeh
Thomas Le
Christine N. Pons
Julián A. Prieto

Outstanding Medical Student in Ophthalmology & Vision Science
Jaipreet S. Virk

Award for Excellence in Otolaryngology
Cynthia Sun

Robert E. Stowell, M.D., Ph.D. Award for Excellence in Pathology
Augustin E. Beall

Outstanding Medical Student in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Nicole J. Nagayama

Outstanding Medical Student in Psychiatry
Sujin Jeong
Habib Salamah
Paige A. Hamilton-Conaty

ACE-PC Outstanding Medical Student Award
Sonam Kumari

REACH Outstanding Medical Student Award
Jennifer Lozano

Rural PRIME Outstanding Medical Student Award
Griselda L. Aguilar

Teach-MS Outstanding Medical Student Award
Jade E. Regalado

Tribal Health Outstanding Medical Student Award
Justin Rehwaldt

Frederick J. Meyers Academic Research Careers for Medical Doctors Achievement Award (ARC-MD)
Ferheen Abbasi

The Doctoring Award
Ferheen Abbasi
Taylor A. Boske
Paige A. Hamilton-Conaty
John C. Lew

American Medical Women’s Association Glasgow-Rubin Citation for Academic Achievement
Tejaswi Adhikari
Sage Dillon
Sonam Kumari
Jingyanshan Li
Nicole J. Nagayama
Hanh H. Nguyen
Nina P. Nguyen
Cynthia Sun
Ellie H. Tsang
Michelle Wang
Tiffany L. Wong
Jady A. Yang

United States Public Health Services Excellence Award
Juan Floriano Muniz

Faculty Awards

C. John Tupper, M.D. Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Saul Schaefer
Ruth Shim

Hibbard Williams Award for Extraordinary Achievement
Luis G. Carvajal-Carmona

Faith Fitzgerald, M.D. Early-Stage Educator Award
Eric D. Signoff
Melody L. Tran-Reina, M.D.

Emerging Leader Award
Jennifer L. Rosenthal

School of Medicine Research Award
Thomas H. Ambrosi (Early Career Investigator)
David Michael Brandman (Established Investigator)

Joan Oettinger Memorial Award (for outstanding lung or cancer research)
Tianhong Li

I-EXPLORE Achievement Award Recipients
Ho Phan
Cara Sandholdt
Shubha Ananthakrishnan
Archana Reddy

I-EXPLORE Staff Awards
Heidi van Beek
Alfonz Suguitan

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals Award for Excellence in Teaching

Basic Sciences
Jeffrey S. Hoch (Public Health Sciences)

Clinical Sciences (Full-Time)
Craig Keenan (Internal Medicine)

Clinical Sciences (Volunteer)
Jeffrey Hasting (Ob-Gyn, Kaiser Folsom)

Outstanding Teaching Awards Resident Medical Staff

Emergency Medicine
Ibrahim Fattah

Family Practice
Michelle Peterson

Internal Medicine
Ignacio Cortina Petrasic

Obstetrics & Gynecology
Kayla Meadows

Pediatrics
Tiffany Ju

Psychiatry
Deirdra Kelly

Surgery
Tyler Carcamo

Staff Award
Golden Bladder Award
Holly Ly

Outstanding Instructor Awards from the Class Of 2026

Basic Sciences
Shubha Ananthakrishnan

Clinical Sciences (Full-Time)
Ho H. Phan

Clinical Sciences (Volunteer)
Bob Peng (Ob-Gyn, Dignity Health)