Courtney Miller, PhD, a professor in the departments of Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience at Scripps Research, has been awarded the Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award from the Society for Neuroscience for her efforts promoting women in science. 

Miller shares the award with her longtime colleague Ghazaleh Sadri-Vakili, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the director of the neuroepigenetics laboratory at MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases. The Louise Hanson Marshall Award honors an individual or individuals who have significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership or public advocacy. 

Mentoring women scientists has been a career-long practice for Miller and one that took flight when she first conversed with Sadri-Vakili at a conference. “We were both postdocs and both exploring epigenetics in neuroscience, something very new at the time,” Miller says. “Once we began talking we realized we had each experienced challenges in our careers and that neither of us had scientific mentors who were women. That had to change. Even though we were young, we decided to take action.”