The American Society for Cell Biology Honors Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas

Donna Ginther, the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, received the Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology. The award recognizes outstanding public service in support of biomedical research or advocacy of sound research policies. She will be honored at the society’s annual meeting in December.

The ASCB, which counts 35 Nobel Laureates among its members, represents about 7,000 basic biomedical researchers in the United States and over 60 countries around the world.

Dr. Ginther is being recognized for “leadership in alerting the scientific community to the serious problem of racial inequity in research funding at the NIH and continuing to call for change.” Dr. Ginther and her research partners published groundbreaking research in 2011 using big data techniques to analyze NIH data to examine racial disparities in NIH funding. That research found that even after controlling for applicants’ educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record, and employer characteristics, Black researchers were 10 percentage points less likely than white researchers to be awarded certain NIH research funding.

Prior to joining the University of Kansas faculty, Professor Ginther was a research economist and associate policy adviser in the regional group of the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2000 to 2002. She taught at Washington University from 1997 to 2000 and Southern Methodist University from 1995 to 1997.

Dr. Ginther received a Ph.D. in economics in 1995, a master’s degree in economics in 1991, and a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1987, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.