“It was a memorable time for me,” remembers Agata Smogorzewska. “I was in the chemistry department. I don’t remember what I was doing there. I saw an advertisement on the wall to apply for a research semester at one of the Department of Energy laboratories. After learning…

Dorothea Fiedler grew up in Germany and had the opportunity to attend a British boarding school as an exchange student for one year. It was around this time that she found herself enchanted by chemistry. “Our chemistry classroom was a little bit like potions class, like…

“The parts I love about science are the opportunities to discover and mentor. The biggest highlight for a scientist is when we can combine the two—working with trainees who make discoveries,” explains Sarah Ross as she reflects on her accomplishments as a pain researcher. Ross…

How do pain mechanisms produce our sense of pain, and how do they differ in children, teenagers, and adults? In his lab in the Department of Anesthesia at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Professor Michael Jankowski investigates the pain mechanisms at work over the course of our lives. “We’re…

When Reza Sharif-Naeini was in high school, his dad had an inexplicable pain in his heel. Many doctors tried and failed to identify the cause of the pain. Frustrated, his dad visited a woman who prayed over the foot by candlelight. “Do you really believe in this?” Sharif couldn’t help…

Major grants will support seven pioneering early-career biomedical scientists The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2025 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating seven early-career leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. The selected…

The moment Elena Gracheva stepped into the lab of Nobel Laureate David Julius, she knew she was in for a ride. “When David saw me, he told me I would be a good candidate to work with snakes,” she says. Having no previous experience with snakes, she was intrigued. “I…

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University has announced a new funding opportunity for civic science media projects with support from the Rita Allen Foundation. The open call for pilot awards to accelerate civic science media collaborations across the United States was…

Bridging Worlds: The Power of Civic Science Media A new frontier in collaboration is changing how communities engage with science—and you’re invited to join this transformative work. Imagine a neighborhood in Detroit where residents armed with air quality sensors are working alongside journalists to track pollution block by block. Picture young Arizonans…

A NETWORK OF HOPE  Since its inception in 2009, the Rita Allen Foundation Award in Pain has expanded the reach of the Rita Allen Foundation Scholars program, supporting 38 pioneering early-career Pain Scholars. Each year, as we welcome a new class of Scholars, we reflect on the achievements of this growing community of researchers and…