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Hazard & Dose-Response

Awards and Research Support

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Current Award Opportunities

1. Early Career Investigator Research Support Award—Deadline: November 2, 2026

The Hazard and Dose-Response Specialty Group (HDRSG) of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) is pleased to announce a monetary award of up to $3,000 to support graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, or early-career investigators conducting innovative research in hazard and dose-response science. In addition, the awardee with be provided a complementary membership or membership renewal to the SRA.

This award is intended to support research activities such as the purchase of research materials, travel to scientific conferences, or publication costs. Projects should fall with HDRSG’s research focus area, which includes:

  • Advancements in dose-response modeling techniques,
  • In silico and in vitro alternative methods for identifying chemical hazards,
  • Investigations into the mechanisms of toxicity,
  • Pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic modeling,
  • Approaches for extrapolation of response below observed exposure levels.

Eligibility

Applicants must be:

  • A graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, or early-career investigator (within 5 years of terminal degree),
  • Conducting research relevant to the focus area described above,
  • SRA membership is not required.

Application Instructions

Applicants must submit a letter of interest of up to 3 pages describing:

  • Their current research,
  • The future efforts that the award would support,
  • A budget for how the award funds would be allocated,
  • The expected impact of the supported research.

Applications must be submitted by November 2nd, 2026, via email to:

Award Notification and Presentation

The award recipient will be notified before the 2026 SRA Annual Meeting and the recipient will be invited to give a short presentation at the annual SRA meeting (December 6-10, 2026) and/or during a virtual HDRSG webinar at a separate date.

Evaluation and Selection

A subcommittee of HDRSG will review applications based on:

  • Scientific merit and innovation,
  • Relevance to the specialty group’s focus areas,
  • Potential impact on the field of risk analysis.

Questions?  Please contact Iris A. Camacho-Ramos (camacho-ramos@khlaw.com) and Chase Anderson (chastain.A.Anderson@altria.com)

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2. Merit Award—Deadline: June 30, 2026

The Hazard and Dose-Response Specialty Group (HDRSG) of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) is pleased to offer a merit award to one student conducting graduate research. This research may be on any topic broadly related to health hazard and dose-response assessment, including but not limited to adverse outcome pathways, dosimetry, epidemiology, biomarkers, genetics, molecular biology, and PK or PBPK modeling. The type of research may be experimental or computational and in the form of methods development, comparative analyses, harmonization, uncertainty analysis, novel applications, or strengthening the role of dose-response in risk assessment. In addition to peer recognition and visibility, the award includes: (1) a registration fee waiver to the 2026 SRA Annual Meeting, (2) a certificate, and (3) a cash honorarium of $500 (winner) or $300 (runner-up). Attendance with poster or platform presentation at the 2026 SRA Annual Meeting (Dec. 6-10, Atlanta, GA) are required!

The award is merit-based and competitive. The HDRSG Executive Committee relies on the following criteria to evaluate submissions:

  1. Relevance to health risk hazard identification and dose-response.
  2. Originality of research.
  3. Breadth of inquiry and the degree of complexity in the procedures and analyses.
  4. Quality of the extended abstract (clarity, logic, organization).
  5. Submission to, publication in, or publishable in, a peer reviewed journal.
  6. Significance of conclusions toward the advancement of a principle, line of research, or field.

The applicant must submit their abstract by May 18 using the individual abstract form on the SRA annual meeting website and by following normal SRA abstract guidelines (https://www.sra.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SRA-2026-Call-for-Abstracts.pdf). Additionally, the applicant must:

  • Designate the HDRSG as the primary specialty group on their form.
  • Select that they wish to apply for the Specialty Group Student Merit Award on their abstract submission form. Applicants for the HDRSG merit award may simultaneously apply for the SRA student travel award.
  • Submit an extended abstract (up to 1000 words), by June 30, that further details the presentation.   

Submissions and questions concerning the DRSG award procedures should be addressed to:

Iris A. Camacho-Ramos, Vice Chair, HDRSG, camacho-ramos@khlaw.com

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Early Career Investigator Award Recipients

Emma Tobin, 2025 – Laboratory Equipment and Supplies to Evaluate Bioavailable PFAS Concentrations in In Vitro Experiments (North Carolina State University)

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Student Merit Award Recipients

Wei-en Huang, 2025 – A Novel High-Throughput V-H2AX-Based in Vitro Assay for Quantitative Genotoxicity Screening and Cancer Risk Assessment of Heterocyclic Amines (Winner, National Taiwan University)

Yun-Jhen Li, 2025 – Probabilistic Risk Assessment of N-nitrosamines in Grilled and Smoked Meat Products: International Comparison (2nd Place, National Taiwan University)

Yun Zhou, 2024 – A Scalable Toxicity Assessment Framework that Quantitatively Integrates Mode of Action Information for the Derivation of a More Data-Driven Reference Dose (RfD) – A Case Study of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)

En Yu Chen, 2023 – Using Bayesian Statistical Methods to Interpret Clinical Trial Data for Gossypol Dose-Response Assessments

Amanda Bernstein, 2021 – A model template approach for rapid evaluation and application of physiologically based pharmacokinetic models for use in human health risk assessments

Zheng Zhao, 2019 – Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Inorganic Arsenic Exposure from Rice Intake in Chinese Urban Population

Dienye Tolofari, 2019 – Risk assessment framework as a tool to quantify water quality changes in building plumbing systems in terms of disability adjusted life years

Zheng Zhao, 2018 – A Systematic Review on Bioaccessibility of Arsenic in Rice

Qiran Chen, 2017 – The Correlation Between Liver Tumor Incidence and Early-stage Liver Weight Change – An Analysis Using NTP Data – First place

Alexandre Chabreli, 2017 – Horizontal Gene Transfer Under Dynamic System Conditions for Understanding Dose-Response Relationships for Antibiotic Resistance Risks – Second place

Qiran Chen, 2016 – A novel benchmark dose approach for continuous data

Miao Guo (University of Maryland), 2015 – First place

Kerry Hamilton (Drexel University), 2015 – Second place

Kelly Harris (Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center), 2015 – Third place

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