ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2022
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Eric R.Tkaczyk, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist with research interests in biophotonics for diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases. He is a graduate of the MD/PhD at the University of Michigan, with PhD in electrical engineering from the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS). At CUOS, he overlapped with his academic grandfather Gerard Mourou, the 2018 Nobel Laureate who founded the lab. Dr. Tkaczyk's post-doctoral training in medical device design at the University of Tartu was supported by Fulbright and Whitaker awards. This work culminated with a prize awarded by the US Ambassador to Estonia and the Estonian Speaker of Parliament at the 2011 Estonian-American Innovation Award ceremony. In 2016, he completed dermatology residency training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he is Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Biomedical Engineering. He is also an attending dermatologist at the VA Medical Center. As founding Director of the Vanderbilt Dermatology Translational Research Clinic (VDTRC.org), he lectures internationally on dermatologic imaging technologies, which is his research focus. His research group develops artificial intelligence algorithms, imaging, and other technologies to provide skin-based assessments for personalized, evidence-based decisions within dermatology as well as in applications to systemic diseases with skin manifestations.