In 1965 Carl Alving, M.D., then a third-year medical student, received the University of Miami School of Medicine Leonard G. Roundtree Award for first prize in the medical student research competition. This was conferred for research he had completed during a summer at The Johns Hopkins University under the mentorship of Albert Lehninger, Ph.D., who was a pioneer in the field of bioenergetics. It would be an event that would change the course of his career.

“That award was a true stimulus to developing my career as a researcher,” Alving says. “After the award, Dr. Harvey Blank, founder and first chairman of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, came up to me and invited me to participate in his laboratory on the weekends. He continued to be a mentor and a guide for the remainder of my time at the school.”

When Alving returned for his 40th class reunion, he ran into Barry Festoff, M.D., a classmate with whom a friendly rivalry had developed. In a strange coincidence, Festoff had brought a watch he had won for the Roche Research Award in 1965. They shared enthusiastic memories of the watch and reminisced about research awards the school used to offer and how much they had meant to both of them.

“I remember how pleased I was to have won the Leonard G. Roundtree Award, and I was disappointed to learn that it was no longer offered to students,” he says. “I went home and discussed it with my wife, and we decided that we wanted to restore such an award to the school.”

The Alvings made a $100,000 gift to the Miller School of Medicine to establish the Drs. Carl and Barbara Alv ing Endowment Award. The award will be presented to the medical student who has had the most outstanding research achievement of the year. An award committee will select the winning candidate based on criteria that it establishes. The student will win a medal and an unrestricted, monetary award to encourage the continued pursuit of medical research. The award, open to any medical student, may be won multiple times during a student’s medical school career.

“Although I trained in internal medicine, I have actually dedicated my career to doing fundamental research rather than direct patient care,” says Alving. “It naturally makes sense that I would want to inspire students who have an interest in research. My wife also has had an illustrious research career and is very deeply involved in medical research. We believe the promotion of research will benefit people greatly because it provides the fundamental underpinning of medicine.

“I would hope there might be a possibility that this would serve as inspiration for additional research resources to the medical school by others and provide stimulation for medical students who are interested in engaging in a research career.”