Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, the K. Ranga Rama Krishnan Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, has been selected to receive a Duke University Presidential Award and the Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize.
The Presidential Awards recognize individuals or teams who have made distinctive contributions to Duke University and Duke University Health System and have demonstrated its institutional values of respect, trust, inclusion, discovery and excellence. It's the highest honor given by Duke to staff and faculty members.
The Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize was established to advance research opportunities for younger faculty members and to help publicize the caliber of medical research underway at Duke. The Williams Prize recognizes groundbreaking research in basic or clinical science in alternate years.
Dr. Dzirasa has been part of the “Duke family” since 2001, when he arrived as a trainee in the Medical Scientist Training Program. He earned his PhD in neurobiology and MD degree from the Duke School of Medicine, and he completed his psychiatry residency at Duke. He joined the Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences faculty in 2009, and he also holds appointments in Neurobiology, Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering.
Dr. Dzirasa’s research focuses on the examination of genetic and stress-based mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and depression.
Learn more about his research: