Chenguang Gong, M.S., a graduate student in the laboratory of Lynne E. Maquat, Ph.D., the J. Lowell Orbison Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Director of the Center for RNA Biology, was awarded one of two 2012 Graduate Student Scaringe Awards from the RNA Society. Each year, the award is given to recognize graduate students who publish the best papers of the previous year in the areas of interest to the society. Gong was honored for his first-author publication in Nature (2011), which describes a new role for long non-coding RNAs in humans. Gong also has a first-author publication in Genes & Development (2009) and several review articles from his graduate work in the Maquat lab. Gong will receive the award in early June at the Annual Meeting of the RNA Society. As part of the award, Gong is invited to write a review for the society's journal RNA.
Gong also received a Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad. Established in 2003 by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), this award encourages research excellence and recognizes overseas Chinese students with outstanding academic accomplishments. The award includes a $5,000 cash prize and a CSC-issued certificate. Gong will join 30 other Chinese graduate students in the CSC's ten-state jurisdiction, which includes not only New York but also Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont, at the Awards Ceremony held on May 25 in New York City.