Rising stars of military medicine earn coveted awards at 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium

The next generation of military medicine researchers earned recognition for their innovative studies focused on warfighter health at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium in Kissimmee, Florida, Aug. 6.

The Young Investigators competition honored the best oral presentations from residents, fellows, doctoral candidates, post-docs, and individuals within five years of graduation from a terminal degree. All research was Department of War-funded with data directly relevant to MHSRS focus areas: warfighter medical readiness, expeditionary medicine, warfighter performance, and return to duty.

U.S. Air Force Col. Scott Sonnek, deputy chief of the airman biosciences division of the 711 Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, opened the ceremony by encouraging the researchers to persevere in their dedication to advancing warfighter health: “It’s not necessarily about how smart you are, but how long you stay with things.”

An impressive 433 abstracts were submitted in 2026, with the 16 Young Investigators representing the top 3% of abstracts submitted. The top three presentations received awards.

Young Investigator Top 3 Dr. Kennedy Nye, from the Uniformed Services University\, Bethesda\, Maryland\, won first place for “Prolonged Zone | Partial Resuscitative Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta Swine Model for Visceral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Therapeutic Evaluation.”

Madelyn Bucci, from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, was awarded second place for “Persistent Sex-, Dose-, Dose-Rate-, and Time-Dependent Plasma and Saliva Extracellular Vesicle Mirna Cargo after Ionizing Radiation Injury, Supporting Extracellular Vesicles as Biomarkers and Mediators of Acute Radiation Syndrome/Delayed effects of Acute Radiation Exposure.”

Isabella Eastridge of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, won third place for “Therapeutic Reprogramming of Complement C5-Driven Endotheliopathy to Promote Survival and Organ Protection after Hemorrhage.”

Poster competition – Best in Show winner Across three poster presentation sessions at the MHSRS, 1,320 posters were accepted into the competition. The judging began when the submitted abstracts were assessed by the topic area review committees and ended during the conference with a joint committee review of the poster judges.

The Best in Show poster winner was awarded to William Johnson of the Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence at the Defense Health Agency, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for “Mechanical Evaluation of Field-Improvised Exoskeletons for Extremity Fracture Stabilization in Prolonged Care.”

Poster competition – Session One winners

• First Place: Emily Ricker, Uniformed Services University Center for Advanced Research in Military Optimization, Readiness, and Rehabilitation, Bethesda, Maryland, for “Prospective Identification of Stress Fracture Risk via Serum Proteomic Profiling upon Entry to Training at the U.S. Military Academy”
• Second Place: Rania Nada, Naval Medical Research Unit - Europe-Africa-Central, Cairo, Egypt, for “Characterization of Antimicrobial Resistance Phenotypes in Surgical Site Infections at a Military Hospital in Cameroon”
• Third Place: Scott Cohen, American Biomedical Group, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for “A Pathogen-Agnostic Ultraviolet Irradiation Platform for Rapid Inactivation of Diverse Biological Threats”
• Honorable Mention: Peter Thomsen-Freitas, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, for “Transfemoral Osseointegrated Prosthesis Limb-Load Symmetry Training: A Feasibility Study of a Telehealth Biofeedback Intervention”
• Honorable Mention: Matthew Grossman, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, for “A Novel Suspension System for a Military-Issued Rucksack Designed to Limit Overuse Injuries”

Poster competition – Session Two winners

• First Place: Elizabeth McAslan, KalyCyte, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, for “Metabolic Reduction-Oxidation Stabilization of Hemoglobin-based Oxygen Carriers for Sustained Oxygen Delivery During Hemorrhagic Shock”
• Second Place: Hongting Zhao, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for “Non-invasive Optical Detection of Intracranial Hypertension with Machine Learning”
• Third Place: Tarea Burton, Naval Medical Research Unit - San Antonio, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, for “The Rugged Ozone Sterilization System Model M1 Sterilization Impact on the Emergency Reuse of Disposable Instruments and Three-Dimensional Printing Materials”
• Honorable Mention: Elise LaDouceur, Joint Pathology Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, for “A New Diagnostic for Military Working Dogs: Static Cytology Maximizes Readiness, Accelerates Treatment, and Trains Military Officers”
• Honorable Mention: Aara Seth, Rowan University, Cambridge, New Jersey, for “Challenging Convention: A Secondary Analysis of Circulation-First Versus Airway-First Triage in Trauma Patients Receiving Blood”

Poster competition – Session Three winners

• First Place: Melissa Ilardo, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, for “Genetic Adaptation in Cold-Water Diving Populations to Inform Cold Injury Risk and Enhance Warfighter Readiness”.
• Second Place: Tarjani Shukla, 59th Medical Wing at the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Medical Center, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, for “Effectively Screening Bedtime Procrastination Smartphone Use Among Active-Duty Service Members: A Quality Improvement Initiative”
• Third Place: Kimberly Gomes, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, for “Sex-based Differential Predictors of Suicide Ideation and Attempts in Psychiatric Aeromedical Evacuations from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom”
• Honorable Mention: Andrew MacGregor, Naval Health Research Center - San Diego, California, for “An Evaluation of Non-Care Seeking for Tinnitus in the Military Health System”
• Honorable Mention: Jean-Philippe Dionne, Med-Eng Holdings, Ottawa, Canada, for “Blast Dosimeter Response within Mini-Shocktubes”

For more about MHSRS, the research presented, and additional areas of interest, visit the MHSRS webpage.