Meet the 2026 Awardee: Priya V. Borker, MD
Priya Borker, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology from Stony Brook University and her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University. She trained at the Harvard combined program for sleep medicine fellowship and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for pulmonary and critical care medicine. She is currently funded through the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a K23 career development grant through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Borker’s research centers on understanding how sleep health contributes to adverse health outcomes and how sleep-based interventions can improve long-term health. Her work has examined how polysomnographic measures vary across ethnic groups and obstructive sleep apnea endotypes, as well as differences in positive airway pressure adherence related to individual patient preferences and neighborhood racial composition. She is currently investigating the role of sleep health in the development of comorbidities associated with age and HIV infection. Her ongoing projects explore how sleep deprivation and untreated obstructive sleep apnea affect monocyte activation and other HIV-associated inflammatory pathways in people living with HIV.
Dr. Borker is honored to receive the 2026 James B. Skatrud Award. She is grateful to her mentors Dr. Sanjay Patel, Dr. Susan Redline, Dr. Kingman Strohl, Dr. Susheel Patil, Dr. Frank Jacono, Dr. Kenneth Remy, and Dr. Bernard Macatangay whose guidance and support have been instrumental to her professional development. She is thankful for the collaborative research communities at the University of Pittsburgh and Case Western Reserve University, which provided invaluable support and insight throughout this work. She is deeply grateful to her family, and especially to her husband, for their unwavering love, support, and encouragement.
Description
The award is intended to recognize the career accomplishments to date and future promise of a new investigator working in the broad area of respiratory neurobiology and sleep, which includes control of breathing, sleep mechanisms, and sleep-disordered breathing. This may include work at the basic, clinical, epidemiological, or other levels.
This award recognizes a new investigator who is beyond formal training, but not yet fully established. It is not intended for well-established investigators. It is also not intended as recognition for a single project, but rather for overall accomplishments and future potential. There are no citizenship requirements for this award. The awardee will be expected to make a short presentation about their research at the SRN Assembly Membership Meeting. The awardee will receive a framed certificate and a monetary award of up to $1000.
Eligibility:
- Nominees cannot be at a rank higher than Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
- Ph.D. or other non-physician scientists should be no more than seven years beyond the completion of their doctoral or terminal research degree at the time of application.
- Physician-scientists (M.D.) should be no more than seven years beyond clinical training (residency, fellowship) at the time of application
- Exceptions may be made for Nominees who have taken significant time away from their academic career; however, this must be pre-emptively discussed with the Planning Committee Chair.
- Nominees should have more than one first-authored paper that is considered to advance the science of respiratory neurobiology or sleep.
- Nominee and Nominator(s) must be ATS members.
- Nominee must be able to attend the ATS International Conference.
- Nomination of international candidates or those from underrepresented minority groups is encouraged. Details may be provided in the nomination letter and/or the candidate’s statement.
Nomination Submission Documents
- A summary of the candidate’s accomplishments in the attached bio-sketch format.
- A statement by the candidate of his/her career goals and the potential of his/her research to advance the field of sleep and respiratory neurobiology (maximum 1 page). Candidates are encouraged to explicitly describe their achievements in terms of the scoring criteria (e.g., total grant funding, publications, SRN/ATS participation or leadership).
- Nominating letter by a mentor (or mentors), which directly addresses the scoring criteria and academic potential
Evaluation Criteria
Applicants are scored using a 1-5 rating system (with 5 being the best) in each of the following categories. A weighted average will be calculated for each category:
0.2 Grant Funding
0.1 Publications - total (quality & quantity)
0.3 Publications - original research – first, senior or corresponding author
0.1 Nomination Letter(s)
0.1 Personal Statement
0.1 Participation in SRN and ATS
0.1 Leadership Potential