The ATS is pleased to recognize Aristotle Leonhard, MD, MS as the recipient of the 2026 Ziskind Clinical Research Scholar Award

The Ziskind Clinical Research Scholar Award is named in honor of Morton Ziskind, MD, a highly respected clinician and researcher from Tulane University who died in 1979. Dr. Ziskind, a long-time ATS member, was known for nurturing fellows and helping them become outstanding clinicians and clinical researchers. Learn more about the award.

Aristotle (Ari) Leonhard, MD MS, is a pulmonary and critical care fellow at the University of Washington, where he also completed an MS in Epidemiology. He earned his MD at the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed internal medicine residency and sleep medicine fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Leonhard’s research focuses on designing health systems interventions to achieve meaningful long-term patient-centered outcomes and improve access to care for patients with pulmonary and sleep conditions. He is currently supported by an individual F32 award through the NHLBI. His recent paper entitled “Receipt of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Among Rural Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Excess Weight” is focused on systemic barriers to access to and use of GLP-1 medications among patient with OSA living in rural areas. He hopes to improve healthcare delivery through proactive approaches to chronic disease management.

2025 Awardee: Lauren Kearney, MD

Lauren Kearney, MD is a pulmonary and critical care fellow at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and research fellow at the Veterans Affairs Center for Health Optimization and Implementation Research in Boston. She earned her MD from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and completed her internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center, where she also served as Chief Medical Resident.

Dr. Kearney’s research leverages mixed methods and community-engaged approaches to develop and assess culturally tailored interventions that address disparities in tobacco use and lung cancer screening. Her work aims to advance early detection of lung cancer, increase access to preventive care and treatment, and reduce health disparities by addressing systemic barriers faced by underserved communities. Recently, she was awarded the prestigious Charles A. King Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to co-design and pilot CEASE-Smoking, an intervention focused on integrating tobacco cessation into community health worker workflows to improve care delivery and reduce tobacco-related health disparities.

2024 Awardee: Bina Choi, MD

Bina Choi, MD is a postdoctoral fellow in the Applied Chest Imaging Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and an associate physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received her MD from Stanford School of Medicine and completed clinical training at Columbia University Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and she is obtaining a Master of Public Health in Quantitative Methods at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Choi’s research integrates quantitative CT imaging and high-throughput plasma omics, using data science and machine learning, to develop novel biomarkers that empower the early detection, clinical prognostication, and drug targeting of precursors to advanced lung diseases. She is supported by an F32 Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and an Early Career Investigator Award through the American Lung Association.

2023 Awardee: Chad H. Hochberg, MD, MH

Chad H. Hochberg, MD, MHS is a Clinical and Research Fellow, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he earned an MHS in Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Hochberg’s research uses real-world data to understand variation in mechanical ventilation and supportive practices in the ICU, and seeks to leverage implementation science methods to improve the delivery of evidence-based care to patients with critical illness. His research during fellowship has investigated the changing practices of prone positioning during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been supported by an F32 Individual Postdoctoral fellowship through the NHLBI.

2022 Awardee: Richard Zou, MD

Richard Zou, MD is a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a MS candidate in the Clinical Research Program (Comparative Effectiveness Track) at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education.

His clinical research focuses on understanding risk factors and mechanisms of muscle loss and frailty in COPD. He was recently awarded an F32 Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship to identify clinical and molecular phenotypes associated with rapid muscle mass decline and to provide mechanistic insight into the natural history of muscle loss in smokers.

2021 Awardee: Justin K. Lui, MD

Justin K. Lui, MD, is a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a MS candidate in the Applied Biostatistics Program at Boston University School of Public Health.

His research focuses on clinical outcomes in patients with systemic sclerosis-related pulmonary hypertension. “Upon completion of my mentored research, I look forward to becoming an independent investigator as I develop both clinical and research expertise in the care of patients with pulmonary hypertension.”

2020 Awardee: Bruno Ferreyro, MD

Bruno Ferreyro, MD is a Fellow in the Oncologic Critical Care Program at the University Health Network/Sinai Health System and a PhD candidate at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Both his clinical and research interests relate to the care of critically ill immunocompromised patients. “During my PhD training I will describe the epidemiology patterns and outcomes of critical illness in patients with hematologic malignancies… Overall, this research will answer key knowledge gaps in the intersection of malignant hematology and critical care medicine with direct translation to patient-centered outcomes.”

2019 Awardees: Ashraf Fawzy, MD, MPH, Kelly M. Pennington, MD, and Andrew J. Synn, MD

Ashraf Fawzy, MD, MPH, is a clinical fellow in the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. His research is focuses on clinical outcomes in obstructive lung disease.

Kelly M. Pennington, MD, is a clinical fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Mayo Clinic Rochester, where she is a Kern Scholar in the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. Her research is focused on preventing fungal infections in lung transplant recipients.

Andrew Synn, MD, is a fellow in the Harvard Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship Program based at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. His research focuses on the use of computed tomographic imaging to identify abnormal pulmonary vascular changes that occur in the setting of chronic lung disease.

2018 Awardees: Takashi Hirama, MD, PhD, William Parker, MD, and Gwen Thompson, MD, MPH

Takashi Hirama, MD, PhD, is a clinical fellow in the Division of Respirology at University of Toronto, where he has been dedicated to the management of patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria at Toronto Western Hospital and delivering comprehensive care for lung transplant recipients at Toronto General Hospital. His research investigates the molecular and cellular biology of respiratory tract infections focused on nontuberculous mycobacteria, in different populations including transplant recipients.

William Parker, MD, is a fellow in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care and MacLean Center for Clinical Ethics at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on critical care ethics, thoracic organ transplantation, and the allocation of scarce medical resources.

Gwen Thompson, MD, MPH, is completing her fellowship in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Her research focuses on ANCA-associated vasculitis and she is involved in both clinical and basic science research. Her clinical research investigates vasculitis manifestations and predictors of relapse. Her basic science research focuses on epitope recognition of proteinase 3 by ANCA.

2017 Awardees: Erin DeMartino, MD, and Jatinder Juss, MD, PhD

Erin DeMartino, MD, is completing her fellowship in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Mayo Clinic and is also a graduate of the clinical medical ethics fellowship at the MacLean Center at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on surrogate decision making, improving advance care planning and examining the ethical intricacies of life-sustaining technologies.

Jatinder Juss, MD, PhD, is a fellow at St Michael’s Hospital in the Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto. Her translational research in infection, immunology and inflammation were ignited during her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on delineating the key mechanisms underpinning immune cell dysfunction in critically ill patients with sepsis and ARDS. Her aim is to identify patient-specific risk factors, specific molecular subtypes, and potentially, distinct therapeutic response profiles that will enable personalized medicine in the ICU.

2016 Awardees: Rachel Putman, MD, and Michael E. Wilson, MD

Rachel Putman, MD, is a fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where her research focuses on early interstitial lung disease. She hopes to demonstrate that specific sets of imaging abnormalities represent an early stage of pulmonary fibrosis, and that better understanding of these changes will lead to advances in secondary prevention of this disease.

Michael E. Wilson, MD, is a fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His research focuses on improving decision making, individualized prognostication, and the delivery of quality palliative care for patients and their families in the hospital and intensive care unit.

2015 Awardees: Ann C. Long, MD, MS, and Bhakti Patel, MD

Ann C. Long, MD, MS, is a senior fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington. Her research interests include identification of patient populations at high risk for poor quality palliative care as well as the development and implementation of interventions to enhance the quality of palliative care provided to seriously ill, hospitalized adults.

Bhakti Patel, MD, is a pulmonary and critical care fellow at the University of Chicago. Her recent paper entitled “Impact of Early Mobilization on Glycemic Control and ICU-Acquired Weakness in Mechanical Ventilated Critically Ill Patients” generated great interest in the Critical Care Community and is currently working on research detailing the impact of ICU mobility on long term outcomes in survivors.

Ziskind Clinical Research Scholar Awardees

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