Panchi's Postdoctoral Prize

Our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Francisca Diaz, affectionately known as “Panchi” to the ones that loved her, passed away after a year-long battle with endometrial cancer. It was particularly aggressive, but throughout this difficult period, she showed impressive resilience, courage and dignity. Panchi grew up in Venezuela and did her Ph.D. in the USA. After two postdoctoral periods at the University of Miami, she became an Assistant Professor in Neurology and was soon after promoted to Associate Professor. She made many contributions to the study of mitochondrial diseases, pioneering the production and characterization of mouse models and their use to develop treatments. She also trained many students and postdoctoral fellows. She was particularly sympathetic to outstanding postdocs that faced difficult projects or unexpected personal issues that made them underdogs in the race for jobs. After her disease revealed its unrelenting course, Panchi was actually excited about creating a postdoctoral award in her memory. She envisioned a yearly award to go to a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Miami facing hardships and still managing to overcome the odds. We are trying to create an endowment to support the "Panchi's Postdoctoral Prize" through this GoFundMe page. Please contribute any amount if you can.  Thank you!

As per GoFundMe request I am adding the name of Panchi's husband: Jose Oca Cossio.