News

Congratulations to two Duke Pediatrics faculty for receiving the 2025 Physician-Scientist “Strong Start” awards from Duke University School of Medicine. The awards program, funded with a gift from the Nanaline H. Duke Fund, supports promising, early career physician-scientists at Duke as they develop independent research programs.   

An early career Department of Pediatrics investigator is being recognized with a prestigious award from the American Society of Clinical Investigators (ASCI).

Mara Becker, MD, MSCE, was selected as a member of the 2022-23 class of fellows for the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program at Drexel University College of Medicine. 

Kaveh Ardalan, MD, MS, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Rheumatology, was recently awarded the 2021 Rheumatology Research Foundation Investigator Award for his project entitled, Psychological Stress and Cardiovascular Health in Juvenile Lupus and Dermatomyositis.

Heather Van Mater, MD, was recently named chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Pediatrics, effective November 1, 2020.

In this week’s Spotlight interview, Heather Van Mater, MD a pediatric rheumatologist, talks about her role as co-director of the Pediatric Autoimmune Brain Disease (ABD) program, where she works closely with colleagues in neurology and psychiatry. She also talks about how she became interested in medicine and her current research focused on autoimmune brain diseases. She shares what she most enjoys about her work as well as her passions outside of Duke and offers some advice for trainees.