Pharmacology and Toxicology PhD Graduate, Emily Tippetts, Receives a Distinguished Honor
2025 Wolf Prize
The College of Pharmacy is proud to announce the 2025 Wolf Prize Awardee: Emily Tippetts, PhD, Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2025.
The Wolf Prize recognizes excellence in teaching by Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidates from any department at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. It is awarded to those students who have demonstrated an aptitude for and inclination toward an academic career. The prize consists of a $5,000 award, and the name of the recipient is also included on a permanent plaque displayed in the College of Pharmacy.
About the 2025 Awardee
Emily Tippetts began her academic career at the University of Utah in 2015. She worked in Dr. Julie Hollien’s lab in the School of Biological Sciences for 3.5 years, receiving multiple semesters of funding under the Fresher Initiative and as an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Scholar. During this time, Emily studied how cells respond to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Outside of academic research, Emily worked as a Chemist Assistant at Ultradent Products, Inc., and as a teaching assistant for introductory biology, cell biology, physiology, and biological chemistry courses. A few months after graduating with her B.S. in Biology in 2019, she remained at the University of Utah to start the Biological Chemistry PhD program.
As a graduate student, Emily has continued her interest in cell biology by studying mitochondrial poisons and mitochondrial disease in Dr. Randall T. Peterson’s lab. Her dissertation research elucidates the mechanism of action of a potential new cyanide antidote, characterizes an array of zebrafish models of Leigh syndrome, and investigates how genetic heterogeneity impacts treatment efficacy for Leigh syndrome. To do this work, she has received National Institutes of Health funding from the Program for Interdisciplinary Training in Chemical Biology T32 grant and from an F31 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Emily has a great appreciation for all the teachers and mentors who have contributed to her training and hopes to carry that tradition forward in her future career. To gain pedagogical expertise, she has volunteered as an elementary school tutor, given guest lectures for courses in the PharmD curriculum, and mentored a high school student and several technicians in the lab. Just this spring, Emily completed the Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education, a 15-credit program focused on learning theories, strategies for active and authentic learning, designing online courses, and methods for fostering community in the classroom. With this training in mind, Emily strives to teach science in a way that accurately portrays the exciting nature of cutting-edge discovery and reaches more learners on an individual level. She is honored to have been chosen for this year’s Wolf Prize.