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.
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