Dubocovich honored with President’s Medal

“Dr. Dubocovich has had a broad and profound impact in her field of study, as well as her academic community at the University at Buffalo, as a scholar, teacher, mentor and administrator,” Tripathi said, adding that her work “truly embodies the excellence of our faculty and the university.”

Dubocovich is considered the world’s foremost authority on melatonin research and the regulation of the hormone’s receptors in the brain and body. She is credited with discovering the functional role of melatonin receptor types that have revolutionized the field; her research has significantly broadened the scientific understanding of melatonin and its effect on circadian rhythms, sleep disorders and depression.

The owner or co-owner of three patents on agents developed for her research, as well as the author of 175 articles, reviews and chapters, she has received continuous funding since 1982.

She has served as the primary thesis adviser for many students and has mentored dozens of postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, master’s students and combined BS/MS students.

As the 2012 inaugural senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion, Dubocovich is leading efforts to build a culturally and intellectually diverse and inclusive academic community within the medical school.

Dubocovich is the director of the CTSI Workforce Development core and program lead for the CTSI Mentored Career Development Award programs. She is director of the Collaborative Learning and Integrated Mentoring in the Biosciences (CLIMB) Program, which was founded at Northwestern University and instituted at UB in 2009. She is also co-director of the UB Institute for Strategic Enhancement of Educational Diversity and principal investigator of the UB CTSA-linked KL2 Mentored Career Development Award for junior faculty.

In her acceptance speech, Dubocovich said the President’s Medal “embodies the commitment, hard work and leadership of my team members who have contributed to building diverse and inclusive communities of students, fellows and faculty engaged in research, training and professional development needed for career success.”

She thanked her collaborators, UB administrators and her family for their support in “bringing diversity to the core of our institutional mission and making the University at Buffalo the engine to drive a strong, diverse and culturally competent workforce in biomedical science and health care.”

Related link

Watch the JSMBS commencement video here.

(President Tripathi’s presentation and Dubocovich’s remarks occur at 17:25 - 25:10.)