Alex Folkl is the winner of the first annual Kenneth J. Friedman Vermont CFIDS Association Medical Scholarship Award . His essay can be seen here.

He is from Toronto, Ontario, born in St. Louis, and his parents live in Detroit. He has a bachelors of science in biology and a masters in pathobiology from the University of Guelph (Ontario); and his wife, Kathryn, is an ecologist/program coordinator for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Alex says, his opinion may change, but at the moment, he's interested in emergency or internal medicine, and spends most of his spare time rock climbing. In the northeast, that means the Adirondacks, Cannon Cliff, and Rumney, New Hampshire.