Dr. Grant presents the Igor Grant, M.D. Endowed Award for Academic Excellence to Nikhil Kotha, at UC San Diego School of Medicine’s 2022 awards ceremony for graduating medical students.

This award was established by JoAnn Grant in honor of her husband Dr. Igor Grant, Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, to celebrate his longstanding commitment to the UC San Diego School of Medicine and ongoing mentorship of future physicians. As a medical student, Dr. Grant was able to conduct research during his tenure through the support of mentors and financial assistance. The Grant family hopes to inspire future generations of medical scientists with this prize. The award recognizes a graduating senior(s) who ranks at the top of their class academically who also sought additional opportunities to conduct biomedical research.

Nikhil’s faculty nominator, Professor James Murphy praised Nikhil as a 4th year UCSD student heading into radiation oncology who took a gap year between his 3rd and 4th years of medical school to pursue cancer research. He is tremendously talented and hardworking, having published 10 manuscripts (and several more abstracts) during medical school, including a high impact first-authored publication in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (PMID: 34918091). He has collaborated with researchers in different disciplines, and mentored younger students through their own research projects.

Newly minted Dr. Kotha plans to pursue advanced training at Stanford’s Radiation Oncology program.