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BULLETIN
Koski to Head Human Research Office in WashingtonSurgeon general David Satcher, who is also the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced that E. Greg Koski, HMS assistant professor of anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital, will serve as the first director of the newly established Office for Human Research Protections. Koski, who directs human research affairs at Partners HealthCare System, will oversee the efforts to protect human subjects used in biomedical and behavioral research, previously a responsibility of the NIH's Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR). The OPRR is being replaced by Koski's office, which will be located at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the new Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, which will remain at the NIH. Koski's office will provide leadership for all 17 federal agencies that conduct human research and monitor programs at more than 4,000 Health and Human Services-funded universities, hospitals, and other medical and behavioral research institutions. "Greg Koski is the right person with the right experience at the right time to take on this challenge," said Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala. "He understands that everyone in the research community must share the responsibility for protecting research subjects, and he knows how to make institutions and investigators sit up and respond fully to the needs of patients in research." Rudenstine to Step Down, Presidential Search Committee Being FormedNeil Rudenstine announced on May 22 that he will conclude his presidency of the University at the close of the next academic year, after a decade leading the University and having completed the most successful fund-raising campaign in the history of higher education. Rudenstine led a University-wide fund-raising campaign that reaped $2.6 billion and oversaw Harvard's endowment nearly triple. He has also done much to promote interdisciplinary learning, including the establishment of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, created through a merger with Radcliffe College; the expansion of the Afro-American Studies Department; and the creation of the Office of the Provost. "With the campaign behind us and new opportunities on the horizon, it will be important to revive the University-wide academic planning process and to take a fresh look at future priorities," he said. "It's only fitting that a new president be in a position both to shape that process and to see it through." The Office of the Governing Boards is organizing a search committee to be led by Robert Stone, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation. The committee will begin its task this summer, which includes soliciting a range of suggestions from Harvard faculty. School of Public Health to Hold International Symposium on Aging and HealthFor details on this September event, see www.hsph.harvard.edu/aging.Honors and AdvancesAt the annual meeting of the American Lung Association/American Thoracic Society, Benjamin Medoff, HMS instructor in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, received a Glaxo Wellcome pulmonary fellowship. The $35,000 fellowships provide funding to new researchers in the field of respiratory care. Nicholas Tilney, the Francis D. Moore professor of surgery at Brigham and Women's, has been given an honorary doctorate from the Medical University of Warsaw. The Association of American Physicians has chosen Kurt Isselbacher, the Mallinckrodt distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, to receive the 2001 Kober Medal at its clinical meetings to be held next April. The award is the highest given by the society and recognizes Isselbacher's contributions to academic medicine. Peter Libby, the Mallinckrodt professor of medicine and chief of cardiovascular medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, has received the 2000 Bristol–Myers Squibb Unrestricted Cardiovascular Research Grant. The five-year, $500,000 prize honors outstanding research scientists. Libby's research focus is vascular biology and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and its complications. News BriefsJulie Rabinovitz, program administrator for the HMS Center of Excellence in Women's Health, and Paula Johnson, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, attended the International Meeting on Women and Health, "Better Health and Welfare Systems: Women's Perspectives," that was held in Japan from April 5 to 7. At the conference, Johnson made a presentation on the impact of "one-stop" comprehensive care on the quality of care for minority women. The Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin was recently honored with three national awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education: a gold medal in the special constituency category (magazines published by professional and graduate schools); a gold medal in the periodical special issues category for an issue on music and medicine; and a silver medal in the magazine publishing improvement category for the magazine's recent redesign.
CORRECTION: We regret that in the last issue we misidentified the two women in the photo with Tom Delbanco, first incumbent of the Koplow–Tullis professorship. On the left is Virginia Latham and on the right is Florence Koplow. Photo by Stu Rosner |
