Amanda Sadacca oversees multiple awards programs administered by the New York Academy of Sciences. She has responsibility for the strategic management of the awards portfolio as well as the execution of these programs, including oversight of the nominations and selection processes, coordination of awards symposiums and ceremonies, and promotion of award programs and honorees.
Dr. Sadacca has over 15 years of scientific research and program management experience, and previously served as a Program Manager and then as Associate Director on the Blavatnik Awards team. Prior to joining the Academy in 2017, she was a Research and Development Manager in the Division of Biosciences at University College London. In this role, she coordinated funding and resources, oversaw capital renovation projects, managed a research program on behalf of the Divisional Director, and established the University College London Food, Metabolism, and Society Research Domain, an interdisciplinary group promoting research on the bi-directional interplay between human culture and metabolic health.
Dr. Sadacca graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted undergraduate research on the sufficiency of the brainstem to mediate feeding behaviors. She received her PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University, elucidating the roles of circadian clocks in the brain and pancreas in controlling energy balance and glucose homeostasis. Her post-doctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine focused on intracellular trafficking of glucose transporters in fat cells, insulin resistance, and diabetes. During this time, Dr. Sadacca also served as the President of the Weill Cornell Postdoctoral Association, advocating on behalf of the institution’s 400+ post-doctoral scientists.