UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Eberly College of Science has honored three alumni with the Outstanding Science Alumni Award for 2026. The board of directors of the Eberly College of Science Alumni Society established this award in 1995 to recognize alumni who have a record of significant professional achievements in their field and who are outstanding role models for students in the college. The winners were recognized during an event held at the Nittany Lion Inn on April 9.
Recipients of this year’s award:
- Christopher Cabell, 1990 bachelor of science degree in molecular and cellular biology
- Jocelyn Fitzgerald, 2008 bachelor of science degree in biology and women’s studies
- E. John Wherry, 1993 bachelor of science degree in science
Cabell is the president, head of research and development, and chief medical officer of Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc., a pharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes small-molecule kinase inhibitor therapeutics. Cabell served as chief medical resident at Duke University Medical Center and was the director of the Echocardiography Core Laboratory when he was a faculty member at Duke University. During his careers in academic medicine and pharmaceutical research, Cabell published 105 peer-reviewed papers in publications such as Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Heart Journal.
Fitzgerald is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the division of urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital. She is an advocate for women’s health equity and has contributed to research in expanding society’s understanding of maternal-fetal medicine, reproductive health and gynecologic conditions. Fitzgerald has been recognized with the Outstanding Scholar Alumni Award from the Penn State Schreyer Honors College, the 2024 Rising Star Award from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons and as a 2025 Pennsylvania Top Physician Under 40.
Wherry is the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor, chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, and director of the Institute for Immunology and Immune Health at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He has been named a fellow to four different major academies, including the National Academy of the Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for Cancer Research. His work on T cell exhaustion aided research around reinvigorating T cells, which helped transform previously fatal cancers into treatable diseases.