National Cell Biology Award Named After Mount Sinai Health System Faculty Member
American Society for Cell Biology Honors Sandra K. Masur, PhD, as the Namesake for Senior Leadership in Cell Biology Honor
The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) has established a national award named for Sandra K. Masur, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology, Mount Sinai Health System. The award honors individuals with a distinguished research career in cell biology and outstanding leadership in mentoring.
The Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award, (previously the Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Senior Leadership Award) will honor “a woman or man at a later career stage (generally full professor or equivalent) whose outstanding scientific achievements are coupled with a record of active leadership in mentoring both men and women in scientific careers.” It will join four other named ASCB awards and is the first named for a woman.
“Dr. Masur has been a prolific researcher throughout her career and has provided guidance and mentorship for many junior researchers especially women and the underrepresented in developing their careers in cell biology and vision research,” said James C. Tsai, MD, MBA, Chair, Department of Ophthalmology at the Health System, and President of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. “Winning a lifetime achievement award is impressive - but getting the lifetime achievement award named after you is another level entirely."
Dr. Masur earned her B.A. in Biology and Aesthetics at the City College of New York (CCNY) and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Cell Biology at Columbia University. She has held academic appointments at CCNY and Columbia University and as visiting Professor at the University of Iowa, EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany and Centre D’Etudes Nucleaires, Saclay, France.
She joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Mount Sinai in 1968. Her research program today employs a corneal stroma model to study the interconnections between extracellular matrix, cell-cell interaction, and growth factors in wound healing. At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai(ISSM), Dr. Masur was Associate Dean for Faculty Development and currently is the founding Director of ISMMS’s Office for Women’s Careers.
Dr. Masur has served on the governing council of the ASCB and as President of the New York Society of Experimental Microscopy. She has been the chair of ASCB’s WICB since 2009. She was co-director of the National Eye Institute’s “Fundamental Issues in Vision Research” at the Marine Biology Lab.
In announcing the naming of the award, ASCB Executive Director Stefano Bertuzzi said, “Dr. Masur’s dedication to WICB and to ASCB has been an exemplar of leadership and volunteer engagement in our Society, which truly helped move the needle in changing social norms and in particular in creating opportunities for women in science.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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