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Aspiring physician Carys McFaul is the recipient of ���Ĺ���’s 2026 Dorothy Reiner Mulroy Award.

The award, presented annually to a graduating senior, recognizes outstanding academic ability and leadership during the student’s years at ���Ĺ���. It is the university’s highest honor.

Carys will give a special address during the undergraduate commencement ceremony May 10 at the Rosemont Theatre.

A biology-chemistry major who plans to attend medical school to become a physician of emergency medicine, Carys has been a part of ongoing research at ���Ĺ��� involving forgettable and unforgettable forms memory. This research, conducted using sea slugs in ���Ĺ���’s Behavioral Neuroscience Lab, earned her 1st Place in the Chicago Society for Neuroscience’s undergraduate poster competition this year. 

Carys is described by her professors as intellectually curious, dedicated and empathic. 

“Carys is exactly the type of person you want to become a physician: whip smart, tirelessly committed, and yet with a deep sense of compassion and respect for those she serves,” wrote ���Ĺ��� professors and Neuroscience Lab leaders Dr. Robert Calin-Jageman and Dr. Irina Calin-Jageman in their nomination of Carys for the Mulroy Award.

Dr. Daniela Andrei, professor of chemistry, said she has “every confidence” that Carys will succeed on her path to completing medical school.

“She possesses not only the intellectual rigor necessary for a demanding medical education, but also the empathy, integrity and dedication that define exceptional physicians,” Andrei wrote in her nomination letter.

Carys is a member of ���Ĺ���’s Mazzuchelli Scholars Honors Program and is an Ida Brechtel chemistry scholar. She has worked as a teaching assistant in organic chemistry at DU and as a patient care technician in the intensive care unit at Endeavor Health Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview. 

She has also found time for meaningful volunteer opportunities, serving as a community advocate with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, as an emergency room volunteer at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, and as a Science Olympiad coach for students at Grayslake Middle School and Frederick School in Grayslake.

“My science professors have been incredibly influential,” Carys said. They’re professors, so they know a lot more than us, but it’s always interesting to see how receptive they are to our ideas and trying to support us. That’s inspired the kind of doctor I want to be.”