In the news

Peiwei received the Larry Sandler Award

March 2025 | Established in 1988, the Larry Sandler Memorial Award is a prestigious international award given for the "best" dissertation in Drosophila of the preceding year. Peiwei is the recipient of the Sandler Award in 2025 and gave a keynote at the opening night of the 66th Annual Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego.

Peiwei was selected as
an HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow

January 2025 | The Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program is a transformational award for early career researchers who show exceptional promise of becoming outstanding leaders in academic science, making foundational discoveries while building an inclusive scientific culture. As a Hanna Gray Fellow, Peiwei receives funding up to $1.5 million. 

Peiwei gave the Everhart Lecture

June 2024 | Named for Caltech president emeritus Thomas Everhart, the Everhart Lectures highlight two outstanding Caltech PhD students each year for their research accomplishments and ability to communicate their work to a broad audience. Peiwei was selected to deliver a Everhart Lecture in 2024.

Peiwei won the Weintraub Award

March 2024 | Fred Hutch established the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Hal Weintraub. Peiwei was one of the 12 biology PhD students worldwide selected for the Weintraub Award in 2024. He presented his PhD work at the Weintraub Symposium.

The LEAP Project was awarded the Agent of Change Award

June 2024 | The Agent of Change Award is given to individuals embodying servant leadership through a demonstrated commitment to steering institutional change within the Caltech community. The LEAP Project founded by Peiwei in early 2022 was the recipient of the Agent of Change Award in 2024.

The LEAP Project was featured by local newspaper Pasadena Now

October 2023 | After successfully helping two public schools in rural California obtain lab equipment and supplies, the LEAP Project set out to help two more schools in Fall 2023. Local newspaper Pasadena Now highlighted LEAP's work and helped LEAP solicit donations in local communities. 

Peiwei was featured by the Genetics Society of America (GSA)

April 2023 | As an inaugural member of the newly established Accessibility Subcommittee at the Genetics Society of America (GSA), Peiwei spearheaded several initiatives to promote accessibility for early-career scientists with disabilities. GSA featured Peiwei and his work with a Leadership Spotlight article.

Peiwei gave a department seminar at the University of Rochester

March 2023 | Peiwei visited the Department of Biology at University of Rochester to give a E2G2 (Evolution, Ecology, Genetics, and Genomics) seminar, where he shared his PhD work on sexual dimorphism, genetic innovation, and intragenomic conflicts.