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
Gregory Allen Payne, MD, PhD, received his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Yale University in 2005. He went on to complete his MD and PhD in cardiovascular physiology while completing the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2011. Subsequently, Dr. Payne joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham ABIM Research Pathway in 2011 and has since completed residency and internal medicine and fellowship and cardiovascular disease. During his clinical training, he received numerous honors including recognition as the 2015-2016 chief cardiology fellow. As a graduate of both Medical Scientist and Physician-Scientist Training Programs, he has gained unique translational scientific skills to investigate vascular and cellular biology. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Payne’s career has been defined by his determination to understand the early mechanisms of vascular disease that ultimately lead to cardiovascular deaths. His translational research program investigates novel inflammatory signals generated by fragmentation of the vascular extracellular matrix. Since 2019, Dr. Payne has also helped co-direct the Translational Research Program for Complex Cardiopulmonary Diseases at UAB. He is also responsible for developing the next generation of physician-scientists as the Assistant Director of the UAB NIH-funded MSTP. Clinically, he cares for patients with a variety of common cardiovascular diseases including coronary artery disease. Dr. Payne has been a national member of the Early Career Committee for the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. He has championed the need for diversity in research through his involvement with the AHA-sponsored Supporting Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program as well as the UAB-sponsored DRIVEN initiative. Dr. Payne’s research has been nationally recognized, and he is one of two inaugural recipients of the American Heart Association-Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AHA-AMFDP) Career Development Award.