Susan Shen, assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is the first female psychiatrist, the first from Iowa, and only the third psychiatrist overall to receive the highly-competitive Avenir Award from the NIH. The $2.3 million grant is awarded for innovative research by “early-stage” investigators in three focus areas: HIV/AIDS, the genetics and epigenetics of substance use, or the chemistry and pharmacology of substance use.