The award is named in memory of Estela Medrano, a professor at the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine and an internationally recognized expert in the regulation of aging and cancer development of human melanocytes, who died tragically in August 2010. It was announced at the American Society for Pigment Cell Research (PASPCR) Meeting on September 22nd, 2012. Hoeckstra, who studies how variation in traits, including pigmentation, is generated and maintained in natural population, is honored to be the first recipient of this newly established award.
