Contact Us
For questions about the program or the application process, email: pioneer-fellows-admin@umich.edu
Carole Parent, Ph.D.
Director, Michigan Pioneer Fellows Program
Research Professor, U-M Life Sciences Institute
Raymond and Lynne Ruddon Professor of Cancer Biology and Pharmacology, U-M Medical School
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, U-M Medical School
Dr. Parent joined the University of Michigan after serving as senior investigator and deputy director of
the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Parent’s research interest focus on
understanding how neutrophils detect and respond to external chemotactic signals and, in particular,
how the spatial and temporal relay of chemotactic signals between cells impact single and group cell
migration in the context of inflammation. She is a Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology and a
Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was inducted in the Johns Hopkins
University Society of Scholars, received the Arthur S. Flemming Award as well as NIH Merit Awards.
Yatrik Shah, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Michigan Pioneer Fellows Program
Horace W. Davenport Collegiate Professor of Physiology, U-M Medical School
Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Internal Medicine, U-M Medical School
Dr. Shah did his undergrad at Bowling Green State University and obtained his PH.D at the Medical
College of Ohio in 2005. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the NCI in the laboratory of Dr. Frank
Gonzalez. In 2010 he began as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular & Integrative
Physiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology. He is currently Horace W. Davenport Collegiate Professor of Physiology and Rogel
Cancer Center Scholar. His primary research focuses on the role of iron/oxygen coordination in altering
cellular metabolism in cancers and chronic inflammatory disorders.
Wenjing Wang, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Michigan Pioneer Fellows Program
Research Assistant Professor, U-M Life Sciences Institute
William R. Roush Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Dr. Wang's lab uses cutting-edge protein engineering methods to design novel molecular tools with widespread utilities across cell biology and neuroscience. She is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the NSF CAREER Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.
Traci Carulli
Administrative Project Coordinator, Life Sciences Institute
Jacqueline Popma, Ph.D.
Graduate Student & Postdoc Coordinator, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, U-M Medical School