By Deborah Wormser

Soon after his arrival in the U.S. from the small Eastern European country of Belarus, Dr. Alexey Hodkoff was putting himself through college with grants, loans, and by working 30 hours a week doing undergraduate research, as well as tutoring physics, chemistry, and calculus students at the Texas Tech University Learning Center.

Despite his demanding work schedule, the biochemistry major was the highest ranking graduate in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and was awarded outstanding performance distinctions in three subjects: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and organic chemistry, all in 2009.

The same focus and dedication to deeply understanding everything Dr. Hodkoff studies have resulted in his selection as the 2015 recipient of the Vernie A. Stembridge, M.D., Scholarship Award in Pathology.

The Stembridge Award was established by friends and colleagues of Dr. Stembridge, the former Pathology Chair who died in 2000. The $1,500 award is given to the most outstanding graduating medical student whose performance in the sophomore pathology course was exemplary and who is interested in a pathology career.

“Clerkship faculty recognized a maturity in Alexey that allowed him to focus fully on other areas of medicine while maintaining his interest in pathology,” members of the selection committee said in the award announcement. “Alexey’s insight into his own personality, strengths, and preferences was acknowledged by those he came into contact with during medical school, and even people outside the specialty of pathology believed that he was destined to become a star pathologist,” the committee said.

Dr. Dominick Cavuoti, Associate Professor of Pathology, said, “From the first time I met Alexey as a second-year medical student I could tell he was passionate about pathology. He has all the attributes I look for in a potential resident: hardworking, inquisitive, easy going and a team player.”

“I like the breadth of the discipline and the tremendous impact of pathology and laboratory medicine on patient management and prognosis,” Dr. Hodkoff said, adding that he also likes the research opportunities pathology offers.

Dr. Hodkoff’s mother is working on an accounting degree at UT Dallas and his father is a chief engineer in Belarus. He said he was influenced to become a doctor by his grandmother, a recently retired general surgeon, and by his late uncle, an endocrine surgeon in Belarus.

“I always knew I wanted to be a doctor,” he said. “The complexity of the human body and spending a lot of time with my grandmother and late uncle got me interested in a career in medicine.”

He chose UT Southwestern Medical School based on its reputation.

“It’s the best in Texas. That’s what I believed before I got here, and I still believe that. I had many amazing faculty members, both in and out of pathology,” he said, adding “There are too many to list. I don’t want to offend anyone by inadvertently not mentioning him or her.”

His training will continue with a pathology residency at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.

“My career goal is to become an excellent pathologist with a wide breadth of knowledge and experience and to contribute to the development of new biomarkers of disease and diagnostic methods,” he said.

Dr. Hodkoff hasn’t decided between clinical or academic medicine but is leaning toward academic medicine because of its research and teaching opportunities.