Meet the 2026 Awardee: Carmen Mikacenic, MD, ATSF
Carmen Mikacenic, MD, ATSF is an Associate Member at the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Mikacenic received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude at Tufts University and M.D. with honors from the University of Washington. She completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington. She was an Associate Professor at the University of Washington attending on the medical intensive care service and in the Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases prior to her appointment at the Benaroya Research Institute. She joined the Benaroya Research institute in 2021 and is a practicing pulmonologist at Virginia Mason Common Spirit Health.
Dr. Mikacenic’s research is focused on translational immunology in acute respiratory distress syndrome and interstitial lung disease. She has a particular interest in functional variation in genes of innate immunity and its role in host susceptibility to lung inflammation. She was a recipient of a Parker B Francis Fellowship and NHLBI career development award. Since that time, she has had continuous independent NIH funding. She has a particular interest in functional variation in genes of innate immunity and its role in host susceptibility to lung inflammation. Her laboratory also focuses on understanding macrophage heterogeneity in lung diseases and on mucosal immune responses in the setting of acute and chronic lung inflammation. With this work she has published over 70 peer reviewed manuscripts.
As a member of ATS, Dr. Mikacenic has participated as a member of multiple committees including programming, planning, and the nominating committee for the AII Assembly. Dr. Mikacenic has also collaborated on two ATS documents, most recently co-chairing a workshop on research bronchoscopy in critically ill participants and received AJRCCM Top Reviewer Award in 2023. She was recognized as an ATS Fellow in 2025. Dr. Mikacenic would like to acknowledge the important role Dr. Thomas Martin played in her career development and connection to ATS through his mentorship..
Description
This award recognizes mid-career faculty who are emerging as national and/or international leaders in their respective fields and have made meaningful contributions in the fields of pulmonary, critical care, allergy, immunology and inflammation. Contributions are defined as a combination of:
- Research contribution(s) in the area(s) of research in the field of allergy, immunology, and inflammation.
- Educational, teaching, and mentoring contributions, and
- Participation in Assembly and ATS activities
There is a single award given out per year in which the awardee will receive a framed certificate and will be invited to give a short speech of their work at the Assembly Membership Meeting.
Qualifications
- The awardee must be a Primary or Secondary AII member.
- The awardee would be > 12 years from terminal doctoral degree (PhDs) or completion of medical fellowship training (MDs or MD/PhDs), in order to distinguish this from the Early Career Award eligibility criteria and would either be at the Assistant or Associate Professor level.
- Previous awardees are not eligible for the same award.
Nominations
- Nominations will come from AII Primary or Secondary Assembly members.
- Submit a completed nomination form summarizing what the nominee has contributed to impact their field thus far and why you believe they demonstrate clear promise for ongoing productivity/achievement.
- Upload the nominee’s NIH Biosketch or equivalent research or achievement CV which is limited to 5 pages. Please make sure that this reflects all of the activities noted on the nomination form.