The American Society of Human Genetics to Honor Vanderbilt University’s Nancy Cox

Nancy Cox, the Mary Phillips Edmonds Gray Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, has been named as the recipient of the 2023 Leadership Award from the American Society of Human Genetics.

Dr. Cox, a former ASHG president who also directs the Division of Genetic Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is being recognized for her research, which has helped characterize the genetic contribution to common diseases, and for her leadership to increase diversity in genomic studies. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, recognizes “exemplary leadership and vision in advancing the ASHG mission through the promotion and successful assimilation of genetics and genomics knowledge into the broader scientific community.” The award will be presented during the society’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in November.

Professor Cox, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2015 after teaching at the University of Chicago, has focused her research on developing novel quantitative genetic methods to identify and characterize genetic variations that contribute to common human diseases and related complex traits, including diabetes and psychiatric disorders. She is the former editor of the journal Genetic Epidemiology.

Dr. Cox is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. After earning a Ph.D. in human genetics from Yale University in 1982, she did postdoctoral work at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania.