Mia K. Markey

 The Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) has awarded Dr. Mia K. Markey with the 8th Annual SWHR Medtronic Prize for Scientific Contributions to Women's Health. Markey received the award at the SWHR 20th Annual Gala Dinner on April 29, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

The SWHR Medtronic Prize, which includes a $75,000 monetary award, is given to a female scientist in her early to mid career who has devoted a significant part of her work to sex differences research and has served as a role model and mentor for both colleagues and students. The award encourages women scientists and engineers to work on issues uniquely related to women's health and rewards women who have devoted a significant part of their careers to this area and whose research has led or will lead directly to the improvement of women's health.

Markey is an Engineering Foundation Faculty Fellow in Engineering and an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, she is an adjunct associate professor of Imaging Physics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Markey leads a collaborative multi-institutional research team that is developing a decision support system for breast cancer survivors. Markey's decision support system will help survivors understand their likely appearance changes following breast reconstruction, enabling patients to determine the optimal surgery option for them. Markey has mentored numerous students, engaging many of them in activities related to advancing women's health.

A national committee of senior scientists selected Markey for the award based on her major contributions to women's health.

"Dr. Markey is a nationally recognized engineer and few engineers have focused on problems related uniquely to women's health," said SWHR Founder Florence P. Haseltine. "Her scientific contributions are obvious and her dedication to using engineering to improve the health of women is unprecedented."

Markey is the first engineer to receive this award. She has been recognized for excellence in research and teaching with awards from organizations such as the American Medical Informatics Association, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the American Cancer Society. Markey's research on breast reconstruction outcomes is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society. She is a Senior Member of both the IEEE and the SPIE, and the editor of Physics of Mammographic Imaging (Taylor and Francis, 2012). This new text gives an overview on the current role and future potential of new alternatives to mammography in the context of clinical need, complementary approaches, and ongoing research.