OU College of Medicine Honors Two with Stanton L. Young Awards

OKLAHOMA CITY – Two University of Oklahoma College of Medicine faculty members, Mary Moon, Ph.D., and Priyabrata Mukherjee, Ph.D., were honored recently for their excellence in teaching and research. Moon received the 2026 Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award, and Mukherjee received the Stanton L. Young Excellence in Research Award.

This year marks the 43^rd annual presentation of the Master Teacher Award, which recognizes the transformative power of exceptional teaching and originates from nominations from students. The award was established through an endowment made by the late Oklahoma City businessman Stanton L. Young, whose vision helped advance the OU Health Campus and the OU College of Medicine. The award comes with a $15,000 cash prize, one of the largest in the nation for medical teaching excellence.

As an educator, Moon is held in high regard by her students. Students nominating her for the award said: “She is very approachable, knowledgeable and always willing to help out, whether it be through teaching, research or mentoring.” And, “She has a way of explaining concepts to make them make sense far more than any of the readings ever could. One of the primary reasons I understand anatomy at the level I do now is because of the amazing teaching of Dr. Moon. She is always enthusiastic about the content she is teaching and never says no to helping us or giving us advice.”

Moon is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the OU College of Medicine. She completed both her undergraduate and doctoral training at OU, earning a B.S. in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Education. After completing her doctorate, Moon joined the College of Medicine faculty, where she serves as the Anatomy and Embryology Thread Director for the undergraduate medical education curriculum.

Medical students have recognized her dedication to teaching with the Aesculapian Award for Excellence in Teaching the Basic Sciences in 2021 and 2025. In addition, she received the College of Medicine Outstanding Teacher Award annually from 2021 to 2025, multiple Dewayne Andrews M.D. Excellence in Teaching Awards, and she is an active member of the Academy of Teaching Scholars.

In addition to her primary teaching role with medical students, Moon contributes to educational efforts across the OU Health Campus, including the Physician Associate Program, the College of Dentistry, Graduate College, and the College of Allied Health. She also serves as site director of the OU Biomedical Education Program on the Oklahoma City campus, overseeing program logistics and mentoring graduate students.

The Stanton L. Young Excellence in Research Award was created last year to recognize and support research that advances knowledge, has the potential to improve the patients’ lives and drives the academic mission of the university forward. The award, also $15,000, was established with the support of the Stanton L. Young Foundation, the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, and the Presbyterian Health Foundation.

Mukherjee is a professor in the Department of Pathology in the OU College of Medicine, and at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center he is senior director of Research Partnership and Collaboration, as well as co-director of the Nanomedicine Program. He was honored for his dedication to basic and translational science and his leadership in the fields of nanoscience and molecular oncology.

His research has been continuously funded by R01 grants, considered the gold standard in National Institutes of Health funding, and he is currently the principal investigator on three R01s and co-principal investigator on four other grants. He leads a multidisciplinary laboratory, publishes high-impact papers and creates patentable technologies.

He is recognized as an outstanding mentor, working with high school students through faculty members. Currently, his laboratory consists of early-career faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and research technicians.

Mukherjee has been recognized in numerous ways, including with the George Lynn Cross Professorship and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Presidential Professorship, and he holds the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Endowed Chair in Cancer Laboratory Research. He is a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and chair of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biomedical Engineering.

He is co-chair of the Web of Life Conference, which brings together experts from different fields to facilitate dialogue and foster collaboration.

Those nominating and supporting Mukherjee for the award said he “is an outstanding biomedical engineer and scientist whose highly creative past and ongoing work holds great promise for our fellow Oklahomans and patients far beyond,” that his work shows an “incredible depth and maturation” and that he is able to “build large teams of funded investigators who are doing cutting-edge, impactful research.”

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About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, the OU Health Campus is one of the nation’s few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. The OU Health Campus serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about the OU Health Campus, visit www.ouhsc.edu.