Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Innovation EARLY CAREER AWARD Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Innovation Published online: 14 December 2018 # International Association of Medical Science Educators 2018 This annual award honors an IAMSE member who has made significant innovations to the field in the short time they have focused their careers toward enhancing teaching, learning, and assessment. Candidates for this award will be Assistant Professor or equivalent rank, or have demonstrated less than 10 years of educational scholarship. An award recipient will have a record of excellence in teaching at his/her institution and possess a record of engagement within IAMSE. It is rec- ognized that, while the successful nominee will have a proven track record of innovating and helping advance the art of teaching, s/he may not yet have achieved significant accom- plishments in scholarship. The Educational Scholarship Committee reviews all nominations and supporting documen- tation based on established criteria and selects finalists. Final approval of each award recipient rests with the IAMSE Board of Directors. 2018 Award Winner—David Harris, PhD University of Central Florida, Associate Professor of Physiology David received his PhD in physiology from Temple University’s School of Medicine in 2004. Afterwards, he did a post doc at Thomas Jefferson University’s Center for Translational Medicine in heart failure and hypertension re- search. In 2008, he joined Drexel University College of Medicine as course director of medical physiology in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. Three years later, he moved away from his home area of Philadelphia and accepted a founding faculty medical educator position at the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Medicine in 2011. During his time at UCF, he has been able to develop his scholarly interests, which include active learning peda- gogies and the use of high fidelity patient simulation with pre-clerkship medical students. He has published articles in Advances in Physiology Education (Advances), Medical Science Educator, and MedEd Portal and has presented nu- merous educational posters, workshops, and focus sessions at IAMSE annual meetings. He has been active nationally by serving on American Physiology Society (APS) committees, serving as Associate Editor of Advances, and serving on the leadership team of the Aquifer Sciences (formerly MedU) to develop a national curriculum for preventing harm through basic science knowledge. He has also won numerous awards such as the APS New Investigator Award, the APS Teaching Career Enhancement Award, and the UCF Pre-clinical Innovative Teaching Award. He enjoys spending time with his wife Renata and daughters Isabella and Alicia, who are his biggest accomplishment and volunteering to teach English as a Second Language. Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic- tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Medical Science Educator (2018) 28 (Suppl 1):S19 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-018-00662-5 Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Innovation 2018 Award Winner—David Harris, PhD University of Central Florida, Associate Professor of Physiology