2025 SOT Award Recipients

Honorary Membership

Sir Colin L. Berry, MD, PhD

Queen Mary Hospital, London, United Kingdom

SOT recognizes nonmembers who embody outstanding and sustained achievements in the field of toxicology and/or allied disciplines with Honorary membership

SOT has confirmed Honorary membership for Sir Colin L. Berry, MD, PhD, for his remarkable leadership in the fields of toxicology, pathology, forensic medicine, and risk assessment. His prolific research career advanced our collective understanding of a wide range of fields, including clinical and experimental teratology, carcinogenesis, cardiovascular diseases, and human risk assessment.

Dr. Berry received an MD and PhD in 1968 from the University of London. There, he trained in human anatomic pathology as well as in experimental pathology. He ultimately achieved the rank of Chairman of Morbid Anatomy (Histopathology) at the Royal London Hospital in 1976, a position he held for 26 years. Throughout his career, he also worked at the Hospital for Sick Children in London and served as a British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellow at Guy’s Hospital. He has held numerous other academic leadership positions, including serving as Dean of the London Hospital Medical College.

Dr. Berry has been increasingly involved in work on the public understanding of science with the Science Media Centre of the Royal Institution and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Scientific Alliance. He has served on the Serling Committee of the European Science Open Forum and has chaired its Program Committee. More recently, he has advised the European Risk and Innovation Forum and the Government of Portugal on post-graduate science provision. He has been consulted on toxicological matters relating to the Grenfell enquiry and concerning judicial reviews of the problems of emissions from landfill sites.

Dr. Berry has demonstrated remarkable expertise and leadership in a variety of areas, and this has led to his position as a highly respected member of several regulatory committees in the United Kingdom and Europe and for the World Health Organization. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Dental and Surgical Materials and the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and as a member of the Committee on Safety of Medicines in the UK and then served on comparable and other committees of the European Commission. He has been elected and served as President of the European Society of Pathology and is a former member of the Medical Research Council of Great Britain. His extensive knowledge, expertise, and experience as well as the high regard in which he is held led to him chairing several important committees, including the AIDS Research Coordinating Committee and the Committee Investigating the Gulf War Syndrome.

Honorary Membership

David J. Julius, PhD

University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

SOT recognizes nonmembers who embody outstanding and sustained achievements in the field of toxicology and/or allied disciplines with Honorary membership

SOT is pleased to bestow Honorary membership to David J. Julius, PhD, in recognition of his discovery of transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels as sensors of chemical and physical stimuli in the nervous system. The impact of these discoveries on the discipline of toxicology became clear when Dr. Julius’s group identified TRPA1 as the receptor for mustard oil, the pungent ingredient in mustard, another widely studied pain-inducing chemical. Subsequent studies revealed that TRPA1 is serving as a neuronal detector of reactive toxic chemicals, including aldehydes and oxidants.

Dr. Julius received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California Berkeley in 1984 and conducted his postdoctoral research at Columbia University. In 1990, he joined the faculty of the University of California San Francisco, where he is currently the Morris Herzstein Chair in Molecular Biology and Medicine and Professor and Chair in the Department of Physiology. An author of 120+ high-impact publications in journals such as Science, Nature,and Cell, his wide-ranging research portfolio has had profound impacts in physiology, structural biology, pharmacology, and toxicology.

Eminent respiratory toxicologists hypothesized that sensory nerves innervating the upper and lower airways express a receptor that detects chemically reactive threats and triggers defensive reflexes such as cough and the rodent sensory irritation response. Dr. Julius’s group revealed that TRPA1 is such a receptor, activated by acrolein and croton aldehyde, the irritating unsaturated aldehydes in tobacco, wildfire smoke, and diesel exhaust, and by formaldehyde. Functional studies in his lab determined that TRPA1 is a genuine chemical reactivity detector, with a cluster of cysteine residues serving as a chemosensory moiety that is modified following chemical exposures. The significance of these discoveries was recognized by toxicologists who found that TRPV1 and TRPA1 are also activated by PM2.5 and other particulate matter created in wildfires and lake-bed dust. Studies by cardiopulmonary toxicologists recognized the important role of TRPA1 in the cardiovascular effects of aldehyde exposures, including exposure-induced arrythmia and endothelial dysfunction. TRPA1 was also found to detect airborne irritating oxidants such as chlorine gas and highly potent tear gas agents, such as CS, used for riot control.

Achievement Award

Shuo Xiao, PhD

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made significant contributions to toxicology within 15 years of obtaining the highest earned degree.

For his innovative and impactful research into how environmental chemicals and pharmaceuticals adversely impact women’s reproductive health and fertility and its implications for public health, Shuo Xiao, PhD, has received the 2025 SOT Achievement Award.

After earning his PhD in Toxicology from the University of Georgia, Dr. Xiao began his academic career as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, exploring 3D in vitro ovarian tissue culture, ovary-on-a-chip, and the ovarian toxicity of cancer treatments. His originality and innovative research approaches have earned him a series of prestigious grants including an NIH K01, NIH P01, NIH UH3, and multiple NIH R01 grants along with grants from other federal and state agencies (e.g., DOD and NJDEP) and research foundations (e.g., Gates Foundation and HESI). Dr. Xiao’s extensive research portfolio has been undertaken as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina and now as a tenured Associate Professor at Rutgers University School of Pharmacy and a resident faculty at Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), where he has conducted his research since 2020.

Since Dr. Xiao began his faculty appointment, he bridged all his prior experience and expertise in reproductive biology, medicine, public health, toxicology, and microfluidics to establish his current independent programs, including female reproductive toxicology, organ-on-chip, and non-hormonal contraception. Dr. Xiao combined his research background in reproductive biology, toxicology, and microfluidics to engineer an ovary-on-a-chip and a whole female reproductive tract-on-a-chip, which hold enormous potential to enable studies on female reproductive biology and toxicology in a more complex and novel way. He continues to advance the complexity of these systems to include other organ systems such as liver and to simulate more complex processes of women’s reproductive and endocrine functions.

A member of SOT since 2010, Dr. Xiao is active in many SOT Specialty Sections and Special Interest Groups. He is currently the President of the American Association of Chinese in Toxicology Special Interest Group (AACT) and the Secretary/Treasurer of the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section (RDTSS), having also completed a term as Councilor for the same Specialty Section. In addition to his service, Dr. Xiao has also received the JOINN Biomere Outstanding Young Toxicologist Award from AACT along with the New-Career Scientist Award and the Best Reproductive Toxicology Paper in Toxicological Sciences, both from RDTSS.

Dr. Xiao has taken an active role in teaching and mentoring the next generation of toxicologists through the Rutgers Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology. As the primary teaching instructor and Director of the course titled “Principles of Toxicology,” he provides instruction in this and many other courses within the program, in addition to mentoring undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral associates, and visiting international scholars at Rutgers.

Arnold J. Lehman Award

David C. Dorman, DVM, PhD, DABT, DABVT, ATS

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Named after one of the SOT founders, this award recognizes an SOT member who has made a major contribution to risk assessment and/or the regulation of chemical agents, including pharmaceuticals. The contribution may have resulted from the application of sound scientific principles to regulation and/or from research activities that have significantly influenced the regulatory process.

For research contributions that have had substantial impact on our ability to develop improved risk assessments for specific chemicals with reductions of uncertainty in the assessments; the incorporation of mechanistic understanding within an exposure-dose-response framework; and the translation of scientific evidence to public policy, regulations, standards, and guidance, David Dorman, DVM, PhD, DABT, DABVT, ATS, is the 2025 recipient of the SOT Arnold J. Lehman Award.

Dr. Dorman’s research efforts have led to improved chemical risk assessments for four widely used chemicals: hydrogen sulfide, manganese, acrolein, and acetaldehyde. In each case, the results from whole animal studies have been integrated into physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) or computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models to support extrapolation from animals to humans and across different exposure conditions. Most significantly, the approach for these chemicals has served as a prototype for evaluation of health hazards of other chemicals.

His body of research assessing the health hazards of chemical exposures spans 195 peer-reviewed publications, 50 book chapters, and contributions to 28 major reports of the National Research Council (NRC) and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), thus, greatly influencing the scientific underpinnings of the regulatory process.

Dr. Dorman’s relevant research contributions to risk assessment led to his invitation to participate in numerous major advisory committees and boards, especially those of the NRC/National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). He has chaired 10 NRC Committees and was recognized as a National Associate with the NRC/NASEM for his extraordinary contributions to the National Academies through pro bono service. His committee work has had lasting impacts in the field of risk assessment. For example, one such NASEM report titled, “Application of Systematic Review Methods in an Overall Strategy for Evaluating Low-Dose Toxicity from Endocrine Active Chemicals,” included systematic reviews for 11 ortho-phthalates and male reproductive toxicity and the effects of polybrominated diphenyl ethers on neurodevelopment and helped with the adoption of systematic review by the US EPA into the Integrated Risk Information System process. His advisory work has not been limited to the National Academies. For example, he served on five monograph teams at IARC and advised Oak Ridge National Laboratories and the US EPA National Homeland Security Research Center on the development of health-based Provisional Advisory Levels for high-priority chemicals, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents.

Dr. Dorman joined SOT as a member in 1990 and is currently a member of the Comparative Toxicology, Pathology, and Veterinary; Inhalation and Respiratory; Metals; and Neurotoxicology Specialty Sections, along with the North Carolina Regional Chapter. Recognized with the SOT Achievement Award in 2004, and a prodigious contributor to the SOT Annual Meeting scientific programs as a speaker and Chair, Dr. Dorman’s prodigious contributions have helped advance chemical risk assessment and the science and impact of toxicology.

Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award

Debra L. Laskin, PhD

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made seminal and substantial scientific contributions to the understanding of the science of toxicology and is actively involved in toxicological research.

Recognizing a longstanding career of impactful scientific contributions to the field of toxicology and her seminal work illuminating the role of macrophages in tissue injury, Debra Laskin, PhD, is presented with the 2025 SOT Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award.

After receiving a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology from the Medical College of Virginia, Dr. Laskin completed a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology/carcinogenesis at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in 1982, where she rapidly rose through the academic ranks becoming a Distinguished Professor in 2000 and the Roy A. Bowers Endowed Chair of Pharmacy in 2007.

Dr. Laskin’s pioneering research has contributed significantly to our understanding of basic mechanistic toxicity, specifically the role of macrophages in xenobiotic-induced tissue injury. Prior to her groundbreaking publications in 1986, the idea that activated macrophages might actually contribute to tissue injury induced by xenobiotics had not been considered. Dr. Laskin coined the phrase “the dark side of the immune system,” a transformative concept that initiated a flurry of investigations by scientists around the world on macrophages and tissue injury. A few years later, she made another pioneering discovery about macrophages and tissue injury; they consist of subpopulations with distinct pro- and anti-inflammatory activity. This led her to hypothesize that the outcome of inflammatory responses to tissue injury depends on the balance in the activity of these cells. Highlighted on the cover of Chemical Research in Toxicology, her review outlined the competition between macrophages for control of inflammatory responses to toxicants, wherein overactivity of either subset could tip the balance leading to injury and disease.

Dr. Laskin’s research on macrophages and tissue injury has been continuously funded by multiple NIH grants since she began her academic career. Her early work focused on macrophages and inflammatory mediators in acetaminophen hepatotoxicity; subsequently, she expanded her work to investigate lung toxicity induced by air pollutants and then chemical warfare agents. Her research efforts over the course of her career have resulted in more than 350 impactful original research articles, book chapters, and reviews, along with invitations to present her work at meetings and institutions around the world, and to participate on review committees, editorial boards, and expert panels. Dr. Laskin’s novel findings have significantly advanced the field of mechanistic toxicology and have led to the identification of key targets in the lung for the development of therapeutics. Her achievements have been previously recognized by SOT through the Achievement Award, the Frank R. Blood Award (now the Board of Publications Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award), and the Burroughs Wellcome Toxicology Scholar Award. Additionally, she has received career achievement awards from the SOT Mechanisms, Inhalation and Respiratory, and Immunotoxicology Specialty Sections, as well as the Toxicology Division of ASPET.

Dr. Laskin is also committed to training the next generation of scientists, as evidenced by the success of numerous graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty that she has mentored who have gone on to establish successful careers in academics, government, and industry and by her selection for the SOT Education Award and SOT Women in Science Toxicology Mentoring Award.

Since joining SOT in 1986, Dr. Laskin has been an active member of the Immunotoxicology, Inhalation and Respiratory, and Mechanisms Specialty Sections, along with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group. Dr. Laskin has served in numerous SOT elected and appointed roles, including on the Awards, Membership, Nominating, and Continuing Education Committees and as an SOT Councilor.

Education Award

Barbara F. Hales, PhD

McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

The Education Award is presented to an individual who is distinguished by the teaching and training of toxicologists and who has made significant contributions to education in the broad field of toxicology.

For her compassionate mentorship and innovative curriculum development and leadership in the education of the next generation of toxicologists, Barbara Hales, PhD, is the 2025 recipient of the SOT Education Award.

After receiving her doctorate in pharmacology and therapeutics from McGill University in 1977, Dr. Hales returned to McGill University in 1979 as an Assistant Professor, attaining the position of Full Professor in 1992 and James McGill Professor in 2011. Throughout her career as an educator at McGill University, she was the lead advisor for more than 30 graduate students and nine postdoctoral fellows. Her students have gone on to toxicology careers in academia, government, and industry—making an outsized contribution to the field of reproductive and developmental toxicology.

As a mentor to her students, Dr. Hales’s contributions are evident in their awards and presentations at scientific meetings. Her quality time with her students, allowing them to master the subject matter, is evident by their student and postdoctoral presentation awards from the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention along with the SOT Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section (RDTSS). She continued to mentor students and facilitate their careers years after they graduated from her laboratory. She took the time to offer feedback on manuscripts and grant applications and guidance on conducting experiments, running a laboratory, and mentoring students.

In leading the education of the next generation of toxicologists, Dr. Hales led the establishment of undergraduate, Bachelor of Science–level Major and Honors degree programs in pharmacology/toxicology within the Faculty of Science of McGill University. Serving as the Undergraduate Program Director for 15 years, she grew the annual enrollment from 30 to more than 130 students. Students choose from an array of courses in pharmacology and toxicology and often went on to advanced graduate studies, some becoming doctoral candidates under the guidance of Dr. Hales.

In addition to her teaching and leadership roles, Dr. Hales was an active SOT member, joining in 2000, and in RDTSS, receiving multiple Paper of the Year awards from the Specialty Section. Additionally, Dr. Hales was an Associate Editor of Toxicological Sciences from 2011 to 2020, a member of the SOT Career Resources and Development Committee, and the Celebrating Membership Accomplishments Task Force.

Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award

Nicole Churchill Kleinstreuer, PhD

NIEHS/NICEATM, Morrisville, NC

This award recognizes an SOT member for contributions made to the advancement of toxicological science through the development and application of methods that replace, refine, or reduce the need for experimental animals. This award recognizes outstanding/significant contributions made by SOT members to the scientifically sound and responsible use of animals in research. This award also serves to recognize member contributions to the public awareness of the importance of animals in toxicology research. The achievement recognized may be either a seminal piece of work or a long-term contribution to toxicological science and animal welfare.

For her leadership and management of the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) and her dedication in developing the first internationally harmonized guideline on defined approaches to skin sensitization—and the significant effects that these efforts have had on the replacement, refinement, and reduction in the use of experimental animals—Nicole Churchill Kleinstreuer, PhD, is awarded the 2025 SOT Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award.

After receiving her PhD in bioengineering from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2009, Dr. Kleinstreuer pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the US EPA National Center for Computational Toxicology, working on multivariate analysis approaches for high-dimensional and high-throughput screening data (ToxCast and Tox21) along with adverse outcome pathway development and evaluation. Her in-depth knowledge of new approach methodologies (NAMs) in toxicology testing culminated in her appointment as the NICEATM Deputy Director and in 2020, she assumed the role of NICEATM Director and Executive Director of ICCVAM.

As Director of NICEATM & ICCVAM, Dr. Kleinstreuer leads a 25-person group responsible for the development and validation of various NAMS research supporting animal use replacement, reduction, and refinement. With her visionary direction, the program quickly became nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in the development, evaluation, and application of new computational approaches for use in regulatory toxicity testing. Under her leadership, in 2018, ICCVAM member agencies gained consensus and published the Strategic Roadmap for Establishing New Approaches to Evaluate the Safety of Chemicals and Medical Products in the United States and in 2023, published the report on Validation, Qualification, and Regulatory Acceptance of New Approach Methodologies. These reports prompted important discussions on foundational topics across US federal agencies—communication that is essential to efficiently advancing best toxicology practices. She has spent much of her career focusing on validation and leading the meticulous work needed to build confidence in new approach methodologies that help replace and reduce the use of animals in toxicology research.

As an internationally recognized driver in the NAMs space, Dr. Kleinstreuer was the lead on multiple projects, first with the Cosmetics Europe industry consortium and then, under the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development, to develop the first internationally harmonized guideline on defined approaches to skin sensitization that serves as a full replacement for a regulatory-required animal test. She also has co-led multiple efforts to develop and validate nonanimal methods for endocrine-disruption screening that have been accepted by the US EPA as alternatives to the rodent uterotrophic bioassay and as sources of information in weight of evidence analyses and priority setting. Most recently, she conceptualized and led strategic planning for a large NIH Common Fund program to Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) which will dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the development of human-biology based integrated NAMs.

Dr. Kleinstreuer joined SOT in 2010 and has been an active member of the Biological Modeling, Computational Toxicology, In Vitro and Alternative Methods, and Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Sections, along with the North Carolina Regional Chapter, Out Toxicologists and Allies, and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Groups. Her unparalleled record advancing the science of toxicology has been recognized with numerous Paper of the Year awards from various SOT Specialty Sections and the SOT Achievement Award in 2019.

Founders Award
(for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology)

Marion F. Ehrich, RPh, PhD, DABT, ATS

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Blacksburg, VA

This award, sponsored by the SOT Endowment Fund, recognizes a Full, Emeritus, or Retired Full member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision-making through the development and/or application of state-of-the-art approaches that elucidate, with a high degree of confidence, the distinctions for humans between safe and unsafe levels of exposures to chemical and physical agents.

For her unique career-long research on the mechanisms of organophosphate-induced neurotoxicology and the application of her expertise to the regulatory decision-making process, Marion Ehrich, PhD, DABT, ATS, is awarded the 2025 SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology).

Graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1975 with a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology, Dr. Ehrich took a postdoctoral position in microbiology/toxicology at Virginia Tech where she later was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, achieving the rank of full Professor in 1990 and Professor Emerita in 2018.

During her illustrious research career, Dr. Ehrich has co-authored over 150 publications focused on several mechanisms that govern our scientific understanding of organophosphate-induced toxicology. Notably, publications that she has co-authored have received almost 3,000 citations. Her publications on the development of in vitro methods for distinguishing the organophosphate pesticides that induce delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) via neurotoxic esterase rather than by inhibition of acetylcholinesterase are foundational to the understanding of the differences in the toxicity of organophosphate pesticide compounds, which has had a major impact on regulatory and risk assessment practices. She and her collaborators from veterinary sciences, immunology, and pathology, through extensive publications, have shown that the hen is a better experimental model of OPIDN than rodents based primarily on xenobiotic biotransformation, among other factors, helping guide regulatory decision-making and supporting research with sound toxicological science.

Dr. Ehrich’s active scientific engagement led to her service on several committees that have advised and had a direct influence on critical decisions for which regulatory agencies bear significant responsibility. She served on several National Academies of Sciences Committees including as Chair of the Committee that reviewed risk assessment processes for pesticides done by the California Department of Pesticide Regulations and as a member of the Panel on Great Lakes Pollutants and the Panel on Gulf War and Health, Insecticides and Solvents. Her committee service has resulted in comprehensive monographs that continue to provide a strong scientific base for decisions essential to human health and safety.

A member of SOT since 1980, Dr. Ehrich has made immense contributions that continue to shape the Society to this day. For example, she authored the initial grant for the Undergraduate Diversity Program Student Travel Awards. An active member of the Comparative Toxicology, Pathology, and Veterinary, and Neurotoxicology Specialty Sections, along with the National Capital Area Regional Chapter and the Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group, she has served in many different leadership capacities and SOT Committees, culminating in her service as SOT President 2003–2004 and her receipt of the SOT Merit Award in 2010.

Leading Edge in Basic Science Award

Robyn Leigh Tanguay, PhD

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

This award recognizes a scientist who, based on research, has made a recent (within the last five years), seminal scientific contribution/advance to understanding fundamental mechanisms of toxicity. The recipient should be a respected basic scientist whose research findings are likely to have a pervasive impact on the field of toxicology.

Robyn Leigh Tanguay, PhD, has been honored with the 2025 SOT Leading Edge in Basic Science Award, recognizing her exceptional contributions in the areas of mechanistic and predictive toxicology through her novel use of zebrafish in a high-throughput context.

Dr. Tanguay received her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California Riverside in 1995, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Following her time as an Assistant Professor of molecular toxicology at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, she was appointed Associate Professor of molecular toxicology at Oregon State University in 2003 and University Distinguished Professor in 2011. In addition to her role as professor, she is currently the Director of the Oregon State University Superfund Center and the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory, providing a vast array of high-throughput in vivo zebrafish data to the toxicology community. Her prodigious scientific record of more than 300 publications has an h-index of 86 and more than 21,000 citations, with select papers receiving hundreds of citations each.

Dr. Tanguay’s research has been critical in establishing a foundation for the generation and analysis of big data for predictive toxicology and in using this methodology for elucidating the toxicity potential of large classes of environmentally relevant chemicals for which there was little or no toxicity information, including fluorocarbons (PFAS). With the thousands of possible iterations of possible PFAS chemicals, her lab has generated toxicity data on many of these chemicals in a way that would have been impossible with other toxicity testing methods. From these data, she has identified key molecular features of PFAS that appear to be important in outcome and potency. This information will be used to prioritize remediation and is likely to be used to help exposed individuals understand their level of risk, thus having a widespread and high-profile public and scientific impact.

Dr. Tanguay’s research has helped develop in vivo systems to more rapidly identify hazardous chemicals and nanomaterials. Novel technologies and instrumentation that she’s established have helped increase throughput while simultaneously decreasing cost. This data is valuable for hazard identification in the regulatory sector and shows promise for use in the early stages of technology development to select high-performing, but inherently safer, chemical and nanomaterial products. The enormous volumes of highly reproducible data, and the flexibility of her laboratory systems such that new and/or follow-up experiments can be implemented rapidly, have had a pervasive impact on the field of toxicology and the use of high-throughput systems to advance our understanding of a wide range of chemicals and materials.

SOT has previously recognized Dr. Tanguay with the SOT Toxicologist Mentoring Award in 2023, the Board of Publications Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award in 2020, and the PANWAT Achievement Award in 2012. An SOT member since 2000, Dr. Tanguay is an active member of the Molecular and Systems Biology, Nanoscience and Advanced Materials, Neurotoxicology, Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, and Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology Specialty Sections along with the Out Toxicologists and Allies and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Groups and the Pacific Northwest Regional Chapter. She has been an active member within SOT, serving as Chair of the Membership Committee, as an SOT Councilor from 2021–2024, and as an Associate Editor for Toxicological Sciences beginning in 2014.

Merit Award

James E. Klaunig, PhD, ATS, IATP, AAAS

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

This award recognizes an SOT member who has made distinguished contributions to toxicology throughout an entire career in areas such as research, teaching, regulatory activities, consulting, and service to the Society.

James E. Klaunig, PhD, is recognized with the 2025 SOT Merit Award for a career dedicated to advancing the science of toxicology and training the next generation of toxicologists.

After receiving his doctorate in experimental pathology and toxicology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1980 under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Trump, Dr. Klaunig began a 45-year, multifaceted career, initially as a postdoctoral fellow in chemical carcinogenesis leading to the eventual appointment as an Associate Professor at the University of Toledo School of Medicine. In 1991, following further postdoctoral studies at CIIT, he joined Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine as a Professor and Director of Toxicology. Concomitantly, he also served the State of Indiana as State Toxicologist. In 2010, he moved to IU Bloomington as the founding Professor and Chair of Environmental Health in the newly formed School of Public Health. He became Professor Emeritus at Indiana University in 2022.

Over the duration of his career, Dr. Klaunig’s research has focused on understanding the toxicological and pathological effects of chemical agents with particular interest in the mechanisms of chemically induced carcinogenesis. A hallmark of his hypotheses-based mechanistic studies has been the application of these results to our understanding in producing scientifically based human risk assessments. Since joining the academic ranks, his research was continually extramurally supported for over 40 years by the American Cancer Society, US EPA, US Department of Defense, NIH, State of Indiana, and corporate sources.

To date, Dr. Klaunig has published more than 280 peer-reviewed manuscripts with major contributions to the field of carcinogenesis. In the past five years alone, his published papers are cited close to 1,000 times per year. Several of his papers rank in the top 10–15 most frequently cited papers in high-impact journals, and many of his papers have been cited more than 100 times to date. Because of his contributions, he has twice been designated as a highly cited author in pharmacology and toxicology by Thomson Reuters and by Clarivate Analytics. Besides his participation on multiple NIH study sections, he has also chaired the US EPA Board of Scientific Counselors Subcommittee, Human Health Study Research Program, the Carcinogenesis Division Review. He served as an Associate Editor of Toxicological Sciences and as Editor-in-Chief of Toxicologic Pathology.

Dr. Klaunig has received several honors for his teaching, service, and research including from the SOT Midwest Regional Chapter, the Toxicology Forum, the SOT Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter, and SOT, as well as the Sagamore of the Wabash from the Governor of Indiana. He is an elected fellow to the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, International Academy of Toxicologic Pathologists, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Klaunig’s research interest into the mechanisms underlying drug/chemical carcinogenesis led to many seminal studies. He was one of the first to show the mechanisms causing oxidative DNA damage and liver cancer from some chemicals and how targeting these pathways might be useful for chemoprevention. These studies not only demonstrated mechanisms by which chemicals caused liver cancer via oxidative mechanisms, but his research cohorts also went on to show that in some cases, these mechanisms have limited relevance to human risk by chemicals. Subsequently through research, his lab has discovered several examples of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms (specifically nuclear receptor activation) on how chemicals cause liver cancer in rodent models. Given the differences in receptor activation between rodents and humans, the risk of the rodent liver cancer induction to human cancer risk may not be relevant. As an example, through years of meticulous research, his lab has illustrated how and why non-genotoxic carcinogens that activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha cause liver cancer in rodents, but this does not occur in humans. This extensive and timely research into the mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis has had lasting impacts on risk assessments and regulatory activities and continues to drive lines of inquiry in chemical carcinogenesis in other research labs.

Dr. Klaunig is also recognized as a highly effective teacher and mentor for graduate and postdoctoral students. During his tenure at Indiana University, he revitalized the PhD and Master’s program in toxicology and developed and initiated a PhD program in environmental health. Throughout his tenure, he mentored many graduate and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to prominent positions in academia, government, and industry. His teaching has been specifically recognized through the Indiana University Trustee’s Teaching Award in 2005 and the SOT Education Award in 2020. His educational impact is also felt by nearly every trainee in toxicology today through his chapter on carcinogenesis in Cassarett & Doull’s Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons and the chapter on chemically induced liver injury in Hayes’ Principles and Methods of Toxicology.

A full member of the Society since 1985, Dr. Klaunig has been involved as a volunteer leader. A current member of the Carcinogenesis and Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Sections, he has twice served as President of the Carcinogenesis Specialty Section in addition to other leadership roles with the Mechanisms Specialty Section and Ohio Valley Regional Chapter. He has taken on many other volunteer roles within the Society, including service on the Audit and Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology Committees and as Chair of the Education, Finance, and Nominating Committees, as well as the Endowment Fund Board. He was also elected as SOT Treasurer 2002–2005.

Public Communications Award

Anne H. Chappelle, PhD, DABT

SafeBridge Consultants Inc., Chadds Ford, PA

The SOT Public Communications Award is presented to recognize an individual who has made a major contribution to broadening the general public’s awareness of toxicological issues, including public understanding of the role and importance of experimental animals in toxicological science, through any aspect of public communications, over a significant period of time.

Anne Chappelle, PhD, DABT, is recognized with the 2025 SOT Public Communications Award for her accessible and humorous communication style and prodigious content output that has helped the general public engage with the science of toxicology.

Dr. Chappelle received her doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now St. Joseph’s University) in 1998. Much of her early career was focused on helping companies manage their product stewardship initiatives, including hazard communication, for internal, downstream, and external audiences. In her role, she developed a major chemical company’s first public-facing corporate policy on sustainability—well before most corporations recognized the nexus between sustainability and public health protection, demonstrating Dr. Chappelle’s leadership and style in helping to shape how we communicate toxicological science and understanding to a wide array of audiences.

Accessibility plays a huge role in communicating with an audience, and Dr. Chappelle’s content is widely engaged online. Dr. Chappelle discussed poisons on two YouTube videos for Wired magazine called “Toxicologist Answers Poison Questions from Twitter” in which she answered a diverse array of questions with poise and humor. Her accessibility has led to participation on other podcasts which touch on toxicology, helping to communicate the toxicology concepts with a diverse audience in today’s saturated media landscape.

As co-host of the SOT Adverse Reactions podcast with fellow SOT member David Faulkner, PhD, Dr. Chappelle highlights the people and stories behind the science of how biological, physical, and chemical agents may cause adverse reactions to public, animal, and environmental health and has succeeded in recasting complex toxicology topics such as nanotoxicology, green chemistry, and immunotoxicology into manageable, bite-sized conversations that can be understood by both toxicologists and laypersons. With more than 16,000 downloads, the 25+ episodes of Adverse Reactions have been a communications success story in reaching a wide audience with modern methods.

Dr. Chappelle joined SOT in 1998 and has been an active member of the Biological Modeling, Food Safety, Occupational and Public Health, Regulatory and Safety Evaluation, Risk Assessment, and Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology Specialty Sections, along with the Out Toxicologists and Allies and Women in Toxicology Special Interest Groups and the Mid-Atlantic SOT Regional Chapter (MASOT). In addition to her role as an SOT Councilor (2018–2021), she has been a member of the Nominating Committee and SOT Representative on the Scientific Liaison Coalition and a Student Representative, Councilor, and Treasurer of MASOT.

Toxicologist Mentoring Award

Nathan J. Cherrington, PhD, ATS

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

This award recognizes an SOT member who has displayed a commitment to mentoring and whose advice and counsel have substantially enhanced the career development of toxicologists.

Nathan J. Cherrington, PhD, ATS, is recognized with the 2025 SOT Toxicologist Mentoring Award for his perpetual recognition of toxicology and trainees and the positive impact that he has had on the career development of those around him.

After completing his postdoctoral training at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2002, Dr. Cherrington joined the University of Arizona, where he is currently the Associate Dean for Research and the Director of both the Center for Toxicology and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center. Throughout his tenure at the University of Arizona, he has mentored more than 50 trainees directly and indirectly, including postdocs and visiting scholars, along with PhD and Master’s students. Dr. Cherrington also serves as the director of the NIEHS T32 Training in Environmental Toxicology of Human Disease. He has also taken on external advisory roles to the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; the University of Utah Pharmacology and Toxicology Department; and North Carlina State University’s Toxicology Program where he is a proud alum.

“The more the merrier” is the mentoring glue that Dr. Cherrington has perpetuated in his lab and programs, which has built a welcoming, scientifically stimulating environment for everyone in the lab. Always finding the time and reason to celebrate someone’s accomplishments, he built a collaborative culture for trainees to look forward to at the University of Arizona, allowing everyone to seek guidance from each other and other research groups around the university. This celebratory environment allowed every trainee’s expertise to shine through, building everyone’s network and scientific understanding, and placing every trainee on firm footing when seeking jobs in industry, academia, and government.

As a mentor, Dr. Cherrington’s strengths in all aspects of professional development help intellectual seeds grow in a wide variety of settings. A lifelong mentor, he maintains contact with trainees after they have graduated and taken on diverse professional roles across the world. Selfless in his encouragement and celebration of trainees, he helped develop trainees’ grant writing and speaking skills, selflessly passing on opportunities to the next generation of toxicologists to prepare them with the career skills necessary to excel in any environment.

Joining SOT in 1997, Dr. Cherrington is an active member of the Mechanisms Specialty Section and the Mountain West Regional Chapter. He has made extensive volunteer contributions to the Society, serving as an Associate Editor of Toxicological Sciences since 2014 and as a member of the Awards, Continuing Education, Collaborative Conferences, and Communications Committees, along with the Committee for Diversity Initiatives. Recognized for his rapid contributions to the science of toxicology, he received the SOT Achievement Award in 2011, and the SOT Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award in 2023.

Translational Impact Award

Lu Cai, MD, PhD

University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

This award recognizes a scientist whose recent (within the last 10 years) outstanding clinical, environmental health, or translational research has improved human and/or public health in an area of toxicological concern.

Lu Cai, MD, PhD, is awarded the 2025 SOT Translational Impact Award for his groundbreaking research into understanding the mechanisms of diabetic cardiomyopathy, the role that environmental metals play in these toxicological processes, and the translational impact potential that these findings have for patients suffering from cardiovascular complications induced by diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

After receiving doctorates in medicine and radiation medicine from Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences in Changchun, China, Dr. Cai became a leading researcher in metabolic syndrome (MetS)- and diabetes-related hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. With more than 350 publications, his contributions to the scientific literature have established him as a leading expert and provided opportunities for translational and clinical research to improve human health. As an established researcher, he joined the University of Louisville as an Assistant Professor in 2002 and became Director of the Pediatric Research Institute at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 2013.

After extensive research, Dr. Cai was the first to reveal that metallothionein, by maintaining essential zinc homeostasis and efficiently scavenging free radicals, can prevent diabetes- or MetS-induced cardiovascular complications. Further, his research demonstrated that zinc supplementation with sulforaphane as a natural extract could induce endogenous Nrf2 and prevent hypoxia-induced cardiomyopathy. The clinical implication of these findings is highly significant in that it offers a promising preventive means for millions of patients suffering from cardiovascular complications induced by diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Clinical studies are underway to confirm the therapeutic benefit of zinc and metallothionein in prevention of diabetic cardiovascular diseases in patients with diabetes and/or MetS.

In addition to his translational research on zinc, Dr. Cai recently established a link between environmental exposure to toxic metals and the detrimental impact on critical organs’ functions in animals with pre-existing, unhealthy conditions. His group demonstrated that the animals fed an unhealthy diet, such as a Western diet or high-fat diet, and exposed to environmental toxic metals such as cadmium were more susceptible to renal, cardiac, and liver pathogenic damages, including cancers. These findings help guide public health recommendations, helping ameliorate systemic risk factors to improve human health.

Dr. Cai joined SOT in 2002 and is an active member of the Carcinogenesis, Cardiovascular Toxicology, Exposure, Mechanisms, Metals, and Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Sections, along with the American Association of Chinese in Toxicology Special Interest Group and the Ohio Valley Regional Chapter. As a volunteer, he has served in the presidential chain of the Ohio Valley Regional Chapter, as Treasurer of the Metals Specialty Section, and Councilor of the American Association of Chinese in Toxicology Special Interest Group. Recognizing his scientific impact, he has twice received the Cardiovascular Toxicology Specialty Section’s Impact Award for his publications, along with the Metals Specialty Section Career Achievement Award and the Distinguished Chinese Toxicologist Award from the American Association of Chinese in Toxicology Special Interest Group.

Undergraduate Educator Award

Greg M. Landry, PhD, DABT

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, MA

This award, sponsored by the SOT Endowment, recognizes an SOT member who is distinguished by outstanding contributions to the teaching of undergraduate students in toxicology and toxicology-related areas and whose efforts support the Society’s strategic efforts to “build for the future of toxicology.”

Greg M. Landry, PhD, DABT, is awarded the 2025 SOT Undergraduate Educator Award for his tireless efforts in building the capacity for all undergraduate students to understand and be included in the science of toxicology.

As the Director for the Bachelor of Science in pharmacology and toxicology at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Dr. Landry empowers students to take ownership of their education and furthers the impact of their toxicology education with an emphasis on discussion-based participation to help prepare undergraduates for careers or further education in the biomedical sciences. His broad reach as an undergraduate educator reaches students in a variety of programs that he leads, including didactic-, seminar-, and laboratory-based courses. He also mentors undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as part of his basic toxicology research laboratory where he investigates species-specific mechanisms of target-organ toxicity of alcohols, glycols, & carboxylates for antidote development and risk assessment purposes, as well as toxicological mechanisms of calcium oxalate kidney stone formation. His teaching and research efforts have earned him the Gail P. and Edward A. Bucher Trustees’ Award for Excellence in Faculty-Student Research Collaboration, which recognizes a member of the college’s full-time faculty for notable research collaboration that involves in-depth, faculty-mentored scholarly projects in which students engage in original research that advances knowledge.

Dr. Landry is passionate about inclusivity in toxicology. He is a member of the SOT Out Toxicologists and Allies Special Interest Group Nominating Committee that supports the nomination of candidates for SOT awards. Within his college, he ensures that LGBTQIA+ students are recruited, mentored, and retained in basic biomedical research, and he is a founding member of a committee that plans an annual LGBTQIA+ Research and Representation in Healthcare conference and panel discussion.

As an officer of the Northeast Regional Chapter of SOT (NESOT), he has led their awards program for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs, along with the NESOT undergraduate breakout session at its annual regional meeting. These events include educational breakout sessions and tours of local pharmaceutical companies, as well as contract research organization facilities, helping expose a wide range of undergraduates to future career possibilities in toxicology.

Dr. Landry earned his doctorate in pharmacology, toxicology, and neuroscience from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport in 2013, and completed postdoctoral work at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and the University of Glasgow. He has been an active member of SOT since 2010. An active member of the SOT Clinical and Translational and Mechanisms Specialty Sections, along with the NESOT and Out Toxicologists and Allies Special Interest Group, he is currently the NESOT Senior Councilor. He has also served as a member of the SOT Continuing Education Committee and the Graduate Student Leadership Committee.

Toxicological Sciences Paper of the Year Award

Identification of an Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) for Chemical-Induced Craniofacial Anomalies Using the Transgenic Zebrafish Model.

Shujie Liu, Toru Kawanishi, Atsuko Shimada, Naohiro Ikeda, Masayuki Yamane, Hiroyuki Takeda, and Junichi Tasaki.
2023. Toxicological Sciences 196, no. 1 (November): 38–51. View Paper

This paper describes the establishment of an adverse outcome pathway for the identification of craniofacial anomalies, one of the most frequent birth defects world wide. Using a sox10-EGFP zebrafish reporter line, it was shown that when these cells were exposed to known mammalian teratogens, the corresponding cranial neural crest cells migration and subsequent morphogenesis of the first pharyngeal arch were impaired at 24 hours post-fertilization. In addition, the studies showed that cell proliferation and apoptosis of the migratory CNCCs were disturbed. These would constitute key events of the adverse outcome pathway and thus important for risk assessment, as the developmental processes of cranial neural crest cells have been found to be highly conserved between zebrafish and mammals. As such, these findings may have important public health protection relevance. The Board of Publications proudly confers the Paper of the Year Award to Dr. Tasaki and the entire research team.