Pinnacle Award

Honoring an individual’s lifetime of innovative achievements in STEM and commitment to workplace diversity.

Carol W. Greider, PhD, is the 2019 AWIS Pinnacle Award Winner. She is the Daniel Nathans Professor, and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics and a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University. In 2009, Dr. Greider shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of telomerase, a key enzyme in age related disease and cancer. Dr. Greider continues to receive national recognition for her scientific work and is the recipient of many other awards and honors. Dr. Greider has been an AWIS member since 2003.

Next Generation Award

Highlighting an early career leader in STEM who is a visible and vocal advocate for diversity and inclusive scientific practices.

Mareena Robinson Snowden, PhD, is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on nuclear arms control verification sufficiency, nonproliferation and modernization. Dr. Robinson Snowden became the first African American woman to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT in 2017 and holds a BS in physics from Florida A&M University. Her story in STEM has been featured in MARVEL Comics, CNBC, BET and other national television, radio and print media.