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BULLETIN Project ADAPT Training Center OpensCynthia Walker, project manager for the local implementation team, cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for the Project ADAPT Learning Center on March 3. She was joined by Paul Levy, executive sponsor of Project ADAPT, and Mary Dupont, who leads the training effort. Project ADAPT is the University-wide effort to upgrade Harvard's core administrative systems.
Located at Emmanuel College behind Blackfan Circle, the Training
Center has three newly renovated classrooms equipped with computer
terminals for hands-on learning. Project ADAPT training courses
will begin at the center in early spring for HMS, HSDM, and HSPH
employees as well as hospital employees who handle Harvard- Honors and Advances* At a White House ceremony in February, Mitchell Albert, HMS assistant professor of radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Mark Brezinski, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, were both honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Along with recognizing each of them as researchers at the start of promising careers, the award comes with a five-year grant for them to continue their research. Albert, who directs the Hyperpolarized Noble Gas Laboratory in the Division of MRI at BWH, was cited for his work in that lab, which uses "an imaging technique for diagnosing pathologies of the lungs, blood, and brain, which will improve life on earth and in space." Brezinski was chosen for his work in the creation of a new imaging technology, optical coherence tomography, designed for imaging transparent tissues of the eye, and his subsequent adaptation of it with professor James Fujimoto of MIT. They adapted this technology for the imaging of non-transparent tissues. Brezinski is a cardiologist at MGH and a visiting professor at MIT, and holds six patents in the fiberoptic imaging field. * Health Sciences and Technology student Daniel DiLorenzo was honored with MIT's Jerome H. Lemelson student prize. The $30,000 award is given to promising young inventors. DiLorenzo, who already has made a host of inventions, is currently working on developing prosthetic limbs that would respond to neural transmissions from the brain. Following his graduation in June, when he will receive both an MD and PhD, DiLorenzo will move to Utah, where he will start training as a neurosurgeon. * The National Institutes of Health has named David Knipe, the Higgins professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at HMS, as chairperson of the virology study section at its Center for Scientific Review. * Associate professor of medicine Igor Palacios has been awarded the Gran Cordón del Libertador by the Venezuelan government. The award is given to those who have "distinguished themselves by their outstanding merit and service to humanity." He is the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory and interventional cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. * The first Lois Pope LIFE International Research Award has been given to James Gusella, Bullard professor of neurogenetics and director of molecular genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. The $100,000 award was founded at the University of Miami by Lois Pope to recognize outstanding neuroscience research. "Neurologic disease has affected my family and friends, and it is in their honor that I have made the neurosciences my cause," said Pope. Gusella was honored for his genetic research in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's and neurofibromatosis. He and his colleagues are known for their groundbreaking work in identifying the gene for Huntington's, and for being the first to use only DNA markers to localize a disease gene. * Ramin Khorasani, director of information management systems for BWH Radiology and HMS assistant professor of radiology, is the recipient of a Radiology Research Academic Fellowship given by the Association of University Radiologists and GE Medical Systems. The award provides a $50,000-a-year stipend for two years in support of his research on the test-ordering behavior of physicians, which explores ways to identify and eliminate unnecessary testing. News Briefs* The Harvard Children's Initiative is seeking grant proposals from Harvard faculty and students. The New Collaborations Fund will support new interdisciplinary collaborations. The goal is to encourage collaboration in research, teaching, and community activities between faculty and students from a variety of disciplines whose work involves children's development. The application deadline for the grants, which range from $500 to $5,000, is April 15. If interested, contact the Harvard Children's Initiative at 496-4938. * Researchers at McLean Hospital are seeking participants for a one-year study of a nonexperimental antipsychotic medication for schizophrenia. Participants will be paid and all medication costs covered. Those interested or wanting more information may contact Brian Conant at 617-855-2276. * In January, the Schepens Eye Research Institute completed financing of a 30-year, $14 million bond that will help it accommodate growing research needs. Schepens will use the money to buy out the lease of its current tenant, add about 25 new laboratory modules, and renovate existing laboratory space. "This financing provides the resources to expand our scientific program, made necessary by the explosion of knowledge and progress in vision research," says J. Wayne Streilein, president and director of research at Schepens. The bond was arranged through the Massachusetts Health and Education Facilities Authority and purchased by Merrill Lynch Asset Management. * On Jan. 25, Partners HealthCare System finalized an agreement with Newton-Wellesley Hospital to add that hospital as the fourth full acute care member of Partners. John Bihldorff, president and CEO of Newton-Wellesley, says the affiliation will afford patients greater access to the resources and technologies available at Partners institutions such as MGH and BWH. Newton-Wellesley, which has sought other partnerships in the recent past, was chosen "because of its excellent physicians and long-standing role as the premier community teaching hospital in the western suburbs," says Samuel Thier, president and CEO of Partners. Panel Points Out Ways to IncreaseDiversity in Science "D iversity in Research Careers: Looking Ahead," a panel discussion on March 4 that was part of HMS's 30th anniversary celebration of affirmative action, explored the challenges and opportunities for women and minority group members in research careers.
One of the two panelists, Hunter College professor Virginia Valian, the author of Why So Slow: The Advancement of Women, said that men and women scientists tend to start out with similar salaries but after nine to 13 years, women are making only 90 percent of their counterparts' paycheck. "The disparity widens over time in tenure, too," she said. One of her solutions is for institutions to develop objective performance criteria so men and women are evaluated on the same grounds. The other panelist, Joe L. Martinez, Jr., a professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio, described several "fallacies" surrounding the difficulties of making affirmative action work. For example: the belief that there are few qualified minority scientists. On the contrary, he said, "Minority scholars from eminent fellowship programs are not overrecruited but underrecruited." The panel was moderated by Kenneth Manning from MIT, with commentator Bernard Harleston of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The program was sponsored by the Division of Medical Sciences and cosponsored by the Joint Committee on the Status of Women and the Minority Biomedical Scientists of Harvard. |
