Huntington native nabs presidential award

Jose Paul Corona

Melissa Spencer deleted the e-mail after she read it. She thought it

was junk mail.

Why would the FBI need her social security number to conduct a

background check on her?

It took her some “detective work” but Spencer found out why the FBI

was checking her out.

She will be one of 60 people receiving the Presidential Early Career

Award for Scientists and Engineers at a White House Ceremony on Friday.

“I’m extremely honored and flattered and surprised,” Spencer said.

Spencer got the initial e-mail telling her that she was being

considered for the award and her social security number was needed, last

December. Soon after she deleted it she got a call asking her for the

same information.

That’s when she knew it was serious.

“When I first found out, I had no idea what it was,” Spencer said.

She didn’t find out what kind of award it until last month.

Spencer was raised in Huntington Beach and graduated from Marina High

School. While her parents still reside here, she is living in Westwood

and is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the David Geffen School of

Medicine at UCLA.

She is a muscle cell biologist and is the recipient of a National

Institute of Health and Muscular Dystrophy Assn. grant.

The award will extend her existing grant and will allow her to

continue to research muscular dystrophy. The grant is for $400,000 for

two years.

A total of eight federal departments and agencies nominate candidates

for the annual award. The National Institutes of Health nominated Spencer

for the award.

Recipients can receive up to five years of additional funding to

continue their research.

President Bill Clinton established the award in 1996 to honor the work

of young professionals whose independent research led to advances in

science and technology.