This honor, in remembrance of the late Nevada Regent Sam Lieberman, recognizes exceptional academic, leadership, and service achievements and carries a $5,000 prize.
In , the regents noted Gillis’s commitment to state and global health outcomes through his research at the Center for Molecular Medicine. Gillis has led projects investigating novel treatments for multidrug-resistant fungal diseases and works to develop rapid diagnostics for biothreats like Ebola. Gillis is the first and only undergraduate at the ÍƼöÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ to ever be Biosafety Level 3 trained for high containment work with deadly pathogens.
“The regents do me an incredible honor. With the interminable support of my educators, family and community, I have come a long way from being a nine-year-old who struggled to pronounce 'respiratory syndrome' for my school presentation. I reckon my 3rd grade speech therapist would be very pleased to come to one of my infectious disease lectures now, even if some of the ‘R’s' are still a little hard to pronounce,” Gillis said. “This award is just the cherry on top. In all seriousness, I am tremendously blessed by those around me and grateful to call Nevada ‘home.’”
Gillis is a strong advocate for the WCSD SWAS program, which he attended for elementary school, and which he says “catalyzed [his] curiosity for the world.” He also thanks Dr. Samuel Lee, MD, Ph.D., chief of Internal Medicine at Renown Health, and Sandra Poudrier for nominating him for this honor.
