Stephen H. Robinson, the George C. Reisman professor of medicine
at BID, died on May 27 at age 65.Children's Hospital has announced that Stephen Laverty will become its next president and chief operating officer, succeeding David Weiner, who will step down from these positions but continue as chief executive officer. Laverty will assume his new role in the fall.
Weiner said that the completion of the search "is a crucial element in our plan to advance Children's mission into the future. Steve's arrival will enable me to provide more focused leadership for the broad-based child health care system we are building."
For the past six years, Laverty has been the president and chief executive officer of Winchester Hospital, which he joined in 1985. Previously, he directed financial services and budget planning at Milton Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and Brigham and Women's.
Weiner pointed to the affiliation between Children's and Winchester Hospital as a chance to have gotten to know Laverty personally. "He has clearly demonstrated his deep commitment to excellence in care delivery and to the health and well-being of children and families," Weiner said.
These faculty members were appointed to a full professorship in June.
Graham Colditz
Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Colditz, director of chronic disease epidemiology at the Channing Laboratory, studies lifestyle and prevention of chronic diseases. He has studied hormone therapy and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, physical activity and its relation to cancer risk, and adult weight change in relation to diabetes and hypertension. He also studies diet and activity in relation to weight gain among adolescents.
Tucker Collins
Professor of Pathology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Collins is a pathologist interested in the role of specific types of transcription factors in vascular disease. His research has focused on nuclear factor-kappa B and its role in the inflammatory cytokine-induced expression of the endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecules. His group also studies the transcription factors regulating expression of platelet-derived growth factor in the vessel wall.
Patricia D'Amore
Professor of Ophthalmology
Schepens Eye Research Institute
D'Amore's laboratory focuses on understanding the mechanisms that regulate vascular development and growth control. D'Amore uses tissue culture models and mouse genetics to investigate the role and regulation of polypeptide growth factors and intercellular interactions in the processes of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis.
George Taylor
Professor of Radiology
Children's Hospital
Taylor is director of the Kresge Laboratory for Pediatric Imaging Research and chief of the Division of Body Imaging at Children's Hospital. His clinical research interests include the role of imaging in intermediate outcomes and initial decision-making in blunt abdominal trauma. His current laboratory work focuses on developing ultrasound contrast agents for potential quantification of blood flow in various tissues.
These full professors were appointed to an endowed or distinguished chair.
Richard Kitz
Henry Isaiah Dorr Distinguished
Professor of Research and Teaching in Anaesthetics and Anaesthesia
Massachusetts General Hospital
Kitz's major research interests include the design, synthesis, and testing of novel compounds used as molecular probes and drugs, such as anticholinesterases and short-acting, nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents. He also is interested in patient safety, standards of anesthetic care, and the economics of medical care in the United States.
Edward Lowenstein
Henry Isaiah Dorr Professor
of Research and Teaching in Anaesthetics and Anaesthesia
Massachusetts
General Hospital
Lowenstein, provost in the MGH Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care and former BID anesthetist in chief, is a cardiac anesthesiologist who is particularly recognized for pioneering opioid anesthesia and developing principles for safely anesthetizing patients with coronary artery disease for surgery. His recent research is in coronary and pulmonary microvascular reactivity. From 1997 to '98, he served as the first senior fellow in the HMS Division of Medical Ethics, conducting activities to gain additional insight into the moral issues surrounding end-of-life care.
Stephen H. Robinson, the George C. Reisman professor of medicine
at BID, died on May 27 at age 65.
Robinson was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and Harvard Medical School in 1958. He did his internship and residency at the Harvard Medical Service of Boston City Hospital, where he worked under William B. Castle. After appointments at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Chicago, he returned to the Harvard community in 1965. Over the course of 30 years, he was chief of hematology, clinical director of the Department of Internal Medicine, and codirector of the oncology and hematology training program for postdoctoral studies at BID.
Robinson was the first master of the William B. Castle Society at HMS, which was formed in 1987. He was a proponent of the New Pathway method of education, stressing small-group, self-directed learning and medical societies as a means of establishing long-term relationships among students and faculty.
As a researcher, Robinson investigated how bile and blood cells form in the human body and how normal blood cells can recover from toxic side effects of leukemic-cell targeted chemotherapy.
He leaves his wife, Carole (Latter); two daughters, Lisa Swanson of Mill Valley, Calif., and Susan Robinson Scheer of Arlington, Va.; a son, Michael, of New York City; a sister, Sheila Scher of Cedarhurst, N. Y.; and three grandchildren.
* R. Heather Palmer, lecturer on health services at HSPH, received a grant of $2,449,037 for a study on how to better diagnose jaundice in newborns. Jeffrey N. Katz, associate professor of medicine at BWH, received a two-year $472,306 grant for a study on the quality of hip replacements. Both grants are from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
* Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery at Children's and professor of anatomy and cell biology, will be awarded the Charles A. Dana Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award in October for his "innovative lifetime work in cancer research." The award carries an honorarium of $50,000 which may be donated to any nonprofit organization Folkman chooses.
* Theo Manschreck, clinical professor of psychiatry at the Brockton Veterans Administration Hospital and medical director of the Dr. John C. Corrigan Mental Health Center in Fall River, received the Third Annual Rothstein Award from the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Massachusetts in May. The award is presented to a psychiatrist "whose compassion and dedication advances clinical psychiatry and the treatment and care of persons with serious mental illness." Manschreck's major research involves schizophrenic disorders and psychosis, including genetic markers, neurology, memory mechanisms and cognition, speech disturbance, and imaging.
* Alan M. Harvey, instructor in anesthesia at BWH, was reelected to a second term as Speaker of the House of Delegates of the Massachusetts Medical Society on May 7. The House of Delegates is the legislative and policy-making body of the society. Harvey has been a member of the society's executive board since 1994, and also serves as an alternate delegate to the AMA.
* Yashika Dooley, '00, Erica Marsh, '00, and Alfredo Hinojosa Quiñones, '99, have been selected as 1998 Academic Medicine Fellows by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and the National Medical Fellowships Inc. Each fellowship award is $6,000. Fellowships will take place over an eight- to twelve-week period this summer, or as an elective rotation of equal length in the 1998-99 academic year, and include a three-day research symposium in Princeton, New Jersey.
* Dan Calac, '99, is one of eight fellows selected for the 1998 Arthur Ashe Program in AIDS Care, sponsored by the National Medical Fellowships Inc. He is recognized for "his potential for a responsible role in HIV related care and research." The fellowship award is $6,000, which he will use for a one month rotation at the Harvard AIDS Institute in October 1998. Calac also received a $10,000 fellowship from the Massachusetts Medical Society for his academic achievement and his commitment to public service. He is active in the Four Directions Summer Program, a student-run project that brings Native American undergraduates to Harvard for eight weeks to perform research, shadow physicians, and meet Native American medical students.
* Constance Cepko, HMS professor of genetics, is one of 147 new members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April. The only new member from the HMS community, Cepko joins approximately 4,000 fellows nationwide who have been recognized for their contributions to sciences, scholarship, public affairs, and the arts.
* Tucker Collins, professor of pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Amherst College at its commencement ceremony on May 24. The award recognized him as "a pioneer in the field of vascular biology," who has contributed to the treatment of atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and hypertension. Collins graduated from Amherst in 1975.
Other Administrative Appointments Are Moving Forward
inda Thomas, a cell biologist, began as the new assistant dean for academic programs on July 6. Working with Dennis Kasper, executive dean for academic programs, she will facilitate academic projects across the entire HMS faculty.
Thomas came to HMS from NIH where she served as director of the inherited diseases and disorders program at the National Institute of Dental Research. She began work at NIH as a postdoctoral researcher after receiving her PhD from UCSF in 1990.
"Dr. Thomas combines outstanding training and experience in bench science with extensive administrative skills," wrote Kasper in a letter announcing her arrival.
"I see my role as expanding access to the office of the academic dean and helping to make sure projects move forward smoothly and as rapidly as is appropriate," said Thomas.
In other administrative recruitments, Dean Joseph B. Martin has begun
a national search for a new executive dean for administration, a position
that will combine some of the duties previously held by David Bray and John
Deeley, both of whom have announced plans to take new positions this year.
Deeley will become the vice dean for administration at NYU Medical School
in September and Bray is expanding his academic medicine consulting work.
Martin also announced that candidates have been identified and are being
interviewed for the new dean for research, who will foster collaboration,
industry partnerships, and other aspects of the research enterprise.
--Don Gibbons
Focus 7/17/98