Kimberly Bress, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, has been selected as the 2025 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar.
She will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will be mentored by the recipient of the 2025 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, Huda Akil, PhD, an internationally known neuroscientist whose research has helped reveal the fundamental nature of anxiety, depression, pain and addiction. Akil is the Gardner C. Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neurosciences at the University of Michigan Medical School and senior research professor at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute. Bress will be recognized during Akil’s Discovery Lecture at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Sept. 11.
Established in 2006, the Vanderbilt Prize honors and recognizes scientists of national reputation who have a stellar record of research accomplishments and who are known for mentoring others in science. Recipients mentor a promising graduate student at Vanderbilt — the Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar — for a year during their PhD studies.
Bress is an MD-PhD candidate who is interested in the application of neuroimaging technology to understand cognition and behavior in adults with neurodevelopmental differences. Her doctoral dissertation research applies functional magnetic resonance imaging to study nonverbal communication in autism.
She has “developed novel task-based imaging paradigms, curated and analyzed large open-source datasets, and led the phenotyping of facial expressivity differences in autistic individuals,” wrote her mentor, Carissa Cascio, PhD, in a nomination letter.
Bress is co-mentored by Cascio, now professor of Psychology and senior scientist at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute, and Julia Sheffield, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and holder of the Jack Martin, MD Research Professorship in Psychopharmacology.
Bress “has built a strong interdisciplinary mentorship network across psychiatry, neuroscience and neurology,” Cascio wrote. “I cannot imagine another trainee whose trajectory aligns more closely with the legacy of Dr. Akil, nor one who has made a more positive impact on the scientific community at such an early stage of training. I am confident she will go on to lead impactful research programs addressing critical questions in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.”
Bress received her BA in neuroscience and mental health studies from the University of Tennessee. She was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Madrid and a Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development before starting her MD-PhD training.
She has received multiple international, national and institutional honors, including travel awards from the International Society for Autism Research, Japanese Neuroscience Society, and Society for Neuroscience, and the Grand Prize in the Vanderbilt University 3-Minute Thesis Competition. Bress has held several leadership roles within the Medical Scientist Training Program and served as a 1-to-1 mentor for the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. She is a counselor for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Program for Adults with Williams Syndrome and a clinical volunteer at Shade Tree Clinic.
“It is a great privilege to receive this award and to have the opportunity to be mentored by Dr. Akil,” Bress said. “She has played such a key role in advancing our understanding of the neurobiology underlying emotion and affective behavior. I am extremely grateful to be able to learn from her expertise and know that it will greatly enrich my dissertation research on the nonverbal communication of emotion in autism.”
For more information about the Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar, visit https://www.vumc.org/oor/vanderbilt-prize-student-scholar.
