UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Thomas Stewart, assistant professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science at Penn State, has been honored with the 2024 W.M. Cobb Award in Morphological Sciences by the American Association for Anatomy. The award is one of four early-career investigator awards presented by the association each year. These awards recognize investigators in the early stages of their careers who have made important contributions to biomedical science through their research in cell/molecular biology, developmental biology, comparative neuroanatomy or the morphological sciences. The award will be presented in March at the closing awards ceremony at Anatomy Connected 2024 in Toronto.
“Tom is extremely deserving of this honor and we couldn’t be prouder of him,” said Beth McGraw, professor and department head of biology. “Tom’s research into the evolutionary transition of animals from life in the water to life on land is unique in our college. His work with the transitional fossil fish, Tiktaalik, is helping to fill in gaps in our understanding of how this transition occurred, and we are excited to see where he will take it next.”
Stewart employs evolutionary and developmental approaches to explore how novel traits evolve and the causes of major evolutionary transitions. His work focuses on vertebrate appendages — like fish fins and tetrapod limbs — and he leverages them as models for testing hypotheses of developmental evolution and the relationship between form and function. By integrating paleontological data with experimental embryological and developmental genetic data, Stewart aims to explain macroevolutionary patterns of vertebrate diversity and to discover how new body parts evolve.
Stewart’s previous awards and honors include the Reinventing Scholarship Award from the Syracuse University Center for Graduate Preparation in 2009, the Donald G. Lundgren Memorial Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Research from the Syracuse University Department of Biology in 2009, the Enhancing Linkages between Mathematics and Ecology Fellowship from Michigan State University in 2008, the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program for 2007 to 2009, and a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 2008. Stewart has published his research in journals including Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports.
Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Stewart was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago from 2017 to 2022 and a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and the University of Minnesota from 2015 to 2017. He earned a doctoral degree in integrative biology at the University of Chicago in 2015 and a bachelor’s degree in biology at Syracuse University in 2009.
About AAA
The American Association for Anatomy is an international membership organization of biomedical researchers and educators specializing in the structural foundation of health and disease. The association connects anatomists, neuroscientists, developmental biologists, biological anthropologists, cell biologists and physical therapists to advance the anatomical sciences through research, education and professional development.