Samir Devalaraja, an MD/PhD graduate student in the Malay Haldar lab, has won this year's Saul Winegrad Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Immunology Graduate Program for his thesis "tumor-derived retinoic acid regulates intratumoral monocyte differentiation to promote immune suppression." The award recognizes students whose dissertations have made a significant contribution to biomedical science and is presented annually to a student in each of the PSOM Biomedical Graduate Studies groups. It was created in 1995 to honor BGS's first Director, Saul Winegrad, MD, Emeritus Professor of Physiology, who passed away earlier this year. Samir graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in Biology and Public Health in 2014. In 2012, he was a finalist for the "20 Under 20" entrepreneurs in the international competition hosted by Peter Thiel.