Albert J. Ryan Fellowship
The Albert J. Ryan Foundation was established in 1967 by Alice M. Ryan of Cincinnati in memory of her father. Miss Ryan wished to recognize and encourage the development of students at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of Cincinnati who "show promise of becoming research scholars and who show a capacity to contribute to the advancement of medical science."
How to Apply
The committee will select the fellows based on their demonstrated excellence in graduate research and coursework, the strength of their symposium abstract, and the student’s potential to benefit from the opportunity. The committee especially encourages those who have had limited public speaking opportunities to apply.
Selected students are provided an opportunity to share their research with other fellows and faculty from the three beneficiaries of the Ryan Foundation at the annual Harold Amos Symposium of Ryan Fellows at the White Mountain Hotel & Resort near North Conway, NH. The three beneficiaries are Dartmouth College, the University of Cincinnati, and the Harvard Medical School Office for Graduate Education Phd Programs. Due to this networking opportunity for collaboration/discussion between colleagues and research fields, those with strong interdisciplinary interests are also encouraged to apply.
We anticipate that a $2500 award & $500 travel stipend will be awarded to selected students. These selected students will be required to attend a symposium to present their thesis work May 20th – May 22nd, 2027.
Nomination Instructions:
A call for nominations will be sent in early January 2027.
Eligibility: G3 – G5 students within the HMS Office for Graduate Education PhD Programs
Required application materials are a letter of nomination from a faculty member, an unofficial graduate transcript, the student’s symposium abstract, and CV. Please keep abstracts to 250 words or less. These materials can be submitted using the Harvard Funding Portal.
More Information
Albert J. Ryan Fellowships are awarded annually by the three member institutions, each of which has its own faculty selection committee. While the specific policies may vary from school to school, the primary intent is to carry out Miss Ryan's desire that the students honored have the potential to conduct research that will contribute new knowledge in the biomedical sciences. Thus, selection criteria include performance in formal courses, research talent and accomplishment, and participation in the scientific community. Fellows have usually completed at least their second year in a pre-doctoral program when they are selected.
2026 Ryan Fellows from Harvard:
- Gasser Elbanna (SHBT)
- Jill Jones (PiN)
- Thao Nguyen (IMM)
- Eddie Padilla (BBS)
- Joel Tan (BBS)
- Gizem Terzioglu (PiN)
The annual three-day scientific meeting, which brings together current Fellows from the three institutions, is a unique feature of the Ryan Foundation. This practice started in 1977 in Chicago, in conjunction with the meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Two years later, at the suggestion of Dr. S. Marsha Tenney, the Fellows and faculty from Dartmouth and Harvard met at Dartmouth College's Minary Conference Center on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. Since 1981, the congenial and scientifically exciting atmosphere provided by this former summer home of CBS founder William J. Paley has supported the collegial meetings from the three member institutions.
Students who are chosen as Albert J. Ryan Foundation Fellows become part of a select, life-long community of biomedical scientists, which number close to 400 in 2001. Every year, the Foundation updates and mails to every current and former Fellow a "Directory of Ryan Fellows", which contains sufficient information about training institutions, research interests, and current positions and addresses to be useful for networking purposes. The Foundation plans to facilitate networking further by initiating regional meetings in areas where there are high concentrations of alumni/ae Fellows.
Alice M. Ryan was born in 1884 in Lynn, Massachusetts, and was educated as a medical social worker at Simmons School of Social Work and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She worked with the Red Cross in Boston during and after World War I. Her father, Albert J. Ryan, founded the Vulcan Corporation, manufacturing the wooden lasts on which shoes are made, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1908. He relocated the firm and his family to Cincinnati in 1920 to be closer to what was then the capital of the shoe industry.
After her move to Cincinnati, Miss Ryan became a serious student of philosophy, science and economics. She was an independent and cosmopolitan single woman who made frequent and extended trips to many parts of the world. For the last several years of her life, she resided in an apartment at the Queen City Club in Cincinnati, which was then a men's club. Her early work for the Red Cross and her study of the writings of the philosopher-geologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, were among the factors that led her to her interest in contributing materially to the advancement of human physical and spiritual well-being.
At the October, 2003 meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Albert J. Ryan Foundation, it was enthusiastically and unanimously voted to henceforth name the Squam Lake symposia The Harold Amos Symposium of the Albert J. Ryan Foundation."
From its inception, Dr. Amos played a uniquely important and sustained role in the Ryan Foundation. After he was appointed by Dean Robert Ebert of Harvard Medical School to be the Harvard representative to the Ryan Foundation, he met for the first time in the late 1960s with Co- Trustee Robert Manley, while Alice Ryan was still alive, to discuss ways to implement her desire to fund graduate education. He was involved in the decision that Ryan Fellows should meet regularly together. After the Dartmouth and Harvard Ryan Fellows had, met twice at the Minary Center, Dr. Amos advocated for financial support that would permit inclusion of the Cincinnati Fellows as well What have become the Ryan Foundation's "Squam Lake Symposie may well be a unique aspect of a fellowship of this kind. The idea of regularly publishing and circulating a Ryan Fellows Directory also came from Dr. Amos. Long after he gained emeritus status, Dr. Amos enjoyed regularly participating in the Squam Lake Symposia, as one of his great pleasures was to see and encourage the scientific progress of young investigators. He had a remarkable way of asking questions during the scientific sessions that brought out the best in the speakers and demonstrated his genuine interest in their work. In addition to the scientific sessions of the Symposia, Dr. Amos relished the camaraderie of the informal mealtime and evening conversations with students. He also demonstrated his devotion to the Ryan Foundation by attending almost all of its annual advisory committee meetings in Cincinnati — a not inconsiderable undertaking, especially in his older years, since he did not travel by plane.
Dr. Amos was a graduate student and then, for close to 50 years, a faculty member, in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology (now Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) at Harvard Medical School, where he was named Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in 1975 and became emeritus in 1988. He was known for his work on bacterial metabolism, virology, and animal cell culture. After his official retirement from administrative positions, he continued to derive much satisfaction from doing experiments in the laboratory and thinking about scientific questions. He was preparing several research manuscripts at the time of his death.
As chair of his department from 1968-1971, and again from 1975-1978, Dr. Amos was known particularly for his interest in and encouragement of students and young faculty. In: his role as Chairman of the Division of Medical Sciences (the PhD programs) at Harvard Medical School from 1971-1975 and from 1978-1988, Dr. Amos provided creative, forward-looking leadership with fairness and diplomacy. The door to his office was almost always open, and he welcomed drop-in visitors. He was an effective and tireless supporter of all students, especially minorities, in science and medicine, and served on numerous boards and advisory committees dedicated to these efforts. From 1989-1994 Dr. Amos was program director of the Robert Wood Johnson Minority Medical Faculty Development Program. In tribute to his many contributions, this program has been renamed the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, and its awardees will be know as-Amos Scholars. Beginning in 1974 until his death, he was an active member of the board of directors of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
Dr. Amos received many important awards that recognized both his scientific accomplishments and his devotion to educational initiatives and the welfare of students. These include honorary doctoral degrees from Harvard University and from his alma mater Springfield College, the Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the first Dr. Charles Drew World Medical Prize from Howard University, and the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences. A modest man, few of his colleagues knew the full range of honors he had received.
Above all, Dr. Amos is remembered for caring deeply about people, and was friend, teacher, advisor, mentor, colleague, role model, inspiration, and confidante to hundreds if not thousands of people of all ages, and from all backgrounds and stations in life. He had wide-ranging interests, a prodigious memory for the interests and concerns of others, the desire to share his accumulated wisdom, and the willingness to help resolve difficult situations.
He grew up in Pennsauken, New Jersey, the second of nine children. After graduating first in his class from Camden High School, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an academic scholarship at a time when few were awarded to African Americans. He graduated in 1941 with a degree in biochemistry, and was an ardent, lifelong supporter of his alma mater. He was known as a competent tennis player and pianist. Time in France in the army during World War II, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in the early 1950s, turned Dr. Amos into a confirmed Francophile. A lover of literature and music, he was particularly fond of French composers and poets, spoke fluent French, and relished French food and wine, especially in the company of his many friends. He died on February 26, 2003, several days after suffering a stroke.
Dr. Amos's significant contributions and deep devotion to the Ryan Foundation are celebrated and remembered by naming this symposium the Harold Amos Symposium of the Albert J. Ryan Foundation.