Dr. Shuo Xiao is the 2025 winner of the Lou Guillette, Jr. Outstanding Young Investigator award. This award comes with a $5000 honorarium and a recycled glass plaque.
The award, in honor of Lou Guillette, Jr., is given to an early-career scientist working in some aspect of endocrine disruptor research. Someone who is recognized as a creative, dedicated scientist who at an early stage of their career is already having an impact on human health and who has a special love of and dedication to mentoring. Someone who, like Lou Guillette, Jr., is a good communicator and who is willing to go beyond to help trainees succeed.
Dr. Xiao is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and a Principal Investigator in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey. Although he has only recently been promoted to Associate Professor, he has already made substantial contributions to the field of environmental health.
Dr. Xiao is an outstanding scientist who has a great passion for female reproductive toxicology research. Dr. Xiao also has an exceptionally strong record of scientific publication, extramural research funding, teaching, mentorship, and contributions to the field.
Dr. Xiao combines his research background in uterine biology, ovarian biology, toxicology, and microfluidics to engineer an ovary-on-a-chip and a whole female reproductive tract-on-a-chip, which hold enormous potential to enable studies on female reproductive biology and toxicology in a more complex and novel way.
Dr. Xiao trains and produces the next generation of reproductive toxicologists through mentoring undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral fellows. Since Dr. Xiao began his faculty appointment in 2017, he has mentored 17 graduate and professional students, 18 undergraduate and high school students, 8 postdoctoral associates, and 4 international visiting scholars. Many of these trainees from Dr. Xiao’s lab have published first papers and/or co-authored papers, received reginal or national awards, and successfully moved forward to the next career pathway.
We at HEEDS congratulate Dr. Xiao for becoming the 2025 award winner. We also note the outstanding early-stage scientists who were nominated for the award. As in the past, there were a number of very well qualified applicants this year. Dr. Xiao and all the nominated scientists indicate the field of endocrine disruption has a bright future.
Prior Award Winners
2024 Dr. Chris Kassotis, Wayne State University
2023 Dr. Anne Starling, UNC
2022 Dr. Genoa Warner, NJIT
2021 Dr. Rita Strakovsky, Michigan State University
2020 Dr. Kelly Ferguson, NIEHS