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BULLETIN
HMS FACULTY COUNCIL HMS Faculty Council Approves Two Uses of HMS Name, New HST TitleJoseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Carol Nadelson, chair of the Docket Committee and vice chair of the Faculty Council, welcomed both old and new members to the HMS Faculty Council's first meeting of the academic year on Sept. 27. Mortimer Litt, associate dean in the Office for Faculty Affairs, distributed ballots for election of the new vice chair of the Faculty Council, who also serves as chair of the Docket Committee. Results will be announced in an upcoming Focus. The council approved two requests for use of the Harvard Medical School name. The first was by Gordon Williams, professor of medicine, to use the name with the Scholars in Clinical Sciences Program, a new program that will offer the master's degree pending review by the Harvard Corporation on Dec. 11. Williams will be its first director and Lauren Dewey Platt its executive director. The program will provide physicians with formal training to become effective clinical investigators and leaders in a range of settings from complex research groups to academic departments to industrial and managed care groups. The second request was by Cynthia Morton, the William Lambert Richardson professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, and David Corey, professor of neurobiology, to attach the Harvard name to the Center for Hereditary Deafness. Mandatory testing for deafness in newborns, the introduction of genetic testing for specific deafness-related genes, plus the data from the Human Genome Project, have spurred efforts throughout the HMS community to narrow the gap between research and clinical treatment of patients with hearing disorders. The council also approved a request from Joseph Bonventre, the Robert H. Ebert professor of molecular medicine and codirector of the HST program, to confer a new title for secondary appointments in HST for HMS faculty who contribute in a significant way to HST's research and educational mission. The new title would read "and HST" after the primary HMS title. Primary faculty in HST are few; the majority of the more than 200 HST faculty are affiliated faculty with the HMS appointment of "Member of the Faculty of the Harvard–MIT Division of HST." Bonventre indicated that more faculty are needed to provide infrastructure for the HST academic and research programs, and this faculty needs to be recognized for its efforts. To meet these challenges, HST wishes to stratify its structure into faculty (primary and secondary) and affiliated faculty appointments, based upon contributions. Faculty with secondary HST appointments will devote 20 percent or more effort to academic program issues, and will be reviewed every three years to ensure that their contributions are sustained. Judith Messerle, Countway librarian, and Suzanne Conway, assistant director for reference and educational services at the Countway, spoke about the new Digital Library. As a result of efforts by the Dean's Information Technology Committee and the Digital Library Faculty Subcommittee, Messerle said priority was given to making an electronic reference resource available to the entire HMS community, including affiliates. By having Countway at its center, the hope was to standardize the platforms at the affiliates, bring electronic resources to smaller affiliates that now lack them, and foster collaboration between HMS and its affiliates. Lastly, Hanna Gray, president emerita of the University of Chicago, Harvard University Corporation member, and Harvard Presidential Search Committee member, discussed the search for the new president of Harvard. Gray urged council members to share their views on the current condition of the University, its perceived problems and strengths, and the perceived priorities of the University. She said the search committee wishes to get a sense from the entire Harvard community of the qualities and strengths hoped for in the next Harvard president. Gray indicated that the choice of president will have nationwide implications for biomedical sciences, health care, and higher education. She urged members to remain in contact with her and noted that the selection process is likely to extend to March 2001. HSPH Richmond Award Lecture David Hamburg, Julius B. Richmond Award winner. Photo by Richard Chase The fourth annual Julius B. Richmond lecture was held Nov. 1, given by this year's recipient of the Richmond Award, David Hamburg (above), cochair of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflicts and president emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The award honors those who have distinguished themselves through their work in promoting high standards for public health among vulnerable populations; it is the highest honor conferred by HSPH. Julius B. Richmond, for whom the award and lecture are named, is HSPH professor of health policy and the John D. MacArthur professor emeritus of health policy at HMS. Richmond served as the U.S. Surgeon General from 1977 to 1981. HMS Junior Faculty Receive Armenise Foundation AwardsFour HMS researchers were awarded 2000 Armenise– Harvard Foundation grants in October. The aim of the grant program is to provide support to promising junior faculty members in HMS's basic science departments. Each award is $50,000 a year for two years. This year's awardees are John Assad, assistant professor of neurobiology, who will research the role of the basal ganglia in normal movement; Steven Gygi, lecturer on cell biology, who will use mass spectrometry to develop new reagents in isotope-coded affinity analysis; Randall King, assistant professor of cell biology at the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, who will identify small molecule chemical probes to dissect cell division; and David Sinclair, assistant professor of pathology, who will delineate the basis for sensing and repairing double-stranded breaks in DNA. In MemoriamFrederick Rodkey, the former Edward S. Wood assistant professor of biological chemistry at HMS, died September 29. He was 81. Born in Limon, Colo., Rodkey received his bachelor's degree from Whitworth College and his PhD from Harvard in biological chemistry. He taught at HMS from 1948 to 1958. He left HMS to become chief of the analytical biochemistry laboratory at the Navy Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. Rodkey is survived by his wife, Marjorie of Chestertown, Md.; and two sons, David of Kensington, Md. and Stephen of Attleboro, Mass. Honors and AdvancesThe Massachusetts Health Data Consortium awarded two Harvard faculty members its Investing in Information Award at its annual conference in October. Lucian Leape, HSPH adjunct professor of health policy, received the award for his work in raising awareness of medical errors in health care. Albert Mulley Jr., HMS associate professor of medicine and chief of general medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was honored with the award for creating the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making and developing multimedia and Web-based programs that improve patient–physician decision-making and patient outcomes. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH has granted almost $14 million over four years to fund a study on the genomics of cardiovascular development, adaptation, and remodeling by principal investigator Seigo Izumo, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The multi-institutional study involves researchers from BID, HMS, Brigham and Women's Hospital, MIT's Whitehead Institute, and BU's Framingham Heart Study. The National Eye Institute of the NIH has awarded $1.6 million over five years to fund the new Harvard Program in Ocular Immunology directed by Santa Ono, HMS associate professor of ophthalmology at Schepens Eye Research Institute. The training grant will provide support for both pre- and postdoctoral fellows engaged in basic research in immunology relevant to eye diseases. The approximately 30 program faculty members are located at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, HSPH, and HMS and its affiliates. In September, HSDM fourth-year student Daniel Bills was elected to serve as the vice president of the American Student Dental Association for 2000–2001. S. Barak Caine, HMS assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Science and Technology Council at a White House ceremony in October. Caine, who heads the Neuroscience Program in the Behavioral Science Laboratory at the hospital's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center, investigates brain dopamine systems underlying cocaine abuse and psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. News BriefsThe Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, the Joslin Diabetes Center, and HSPH have become affiliates of HMS's Center of Excellence in Women's Health. They join HMS, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital in this collaborative effort to improve the health of all women. The Interfaculty Health Policy Forum announced that Nancy-Ann DeParle, former administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, will be its first fellow. In this role, DeParle will teach and participate in workshops on health care, sharing with students and the larger Harvard community her experience working on health policy and budget issues in the Clinton Administration. She will also be a fellow of the Institute of Politics. The Interfaculty Health Policy Forum was created to bring together health policy investigators and health care practitioners. The Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center invites applications from HMS faculty members for the Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education and the Rabkin Senior Fellowship in Medical Education. The application deadline is Jan. 5, 2001. For an application and more information, contact Jane Neil at 667-1718. |
