Honors and Advances

• Joan Reede, HMS associate professor of medicine and dean for diversity and community partnership, was presented with the Morehouse School of Medicine Excellence in Primary Care award on Sept. 22. The Atlanta-based school honored Reede for her “specific contributions to promote increased recruitment, retention, and advancement of underrepresented minority faculty.”

• Christos Mantzoros, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was presented with a Young Investigator Award from the Novartis Pharma Corporation on June 13. Mantzoros was honored for his research into the role leptin plays in human metabolism.

• At the American Urological Association’s annual meeting last May, Aria Olumi, HMS assistant professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was honored with the Society of Basic Urologic Research’s 2005 Young Investigator Award. The award is given annually to an investigator under the age of 40 who has made significant contributions to the field of basic urologic research.

• Jeffrey Flier, the George C. Reisman professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the 2005 Banting Medal from the American Diabetes Association on June 12. The medal, which recognizes “significant, long-term contributions to the understanding, treatment, or prevention of a disease,” is the association’s highest scientific honor.

• Karin Hoffmeister, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was named one of the year’s 15 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. The scholarship consists of a four-year, $240,000 research grant, which Hoffmeister will use to study how sugar residues found on the surface of blood platelets affect their activity and survival.

• Frederick Bieber, HMS associate professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been appointed to the new scientific advisory committee to Virginia’s crime lab. The 13-person committee, established by Gov. Mark Warner on Aug. 9, will review laboratory operations, adopt qualification standards for staffers, and establish an audit process when errors occur. Virginia is the second state in the country to appoint this type of review panel for its DNA lab.

• Mei-Ling Ting Lee, HMS associate professor of medicine (biostatistics) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and HSPH associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics, was inducted as a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics on Aug. 8 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Minneapolis. Lee received the award for her significant theoretical contributions to distribution theory and biostatistics, her development of innovative statistical models and methodology for survival data analysis, and her overall professional service to mathematical statistics.

• Charles Czeisler, the Frank Baldino, Jr. PhD professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, recently became president of the Sleep Research Society. The society is composed of over 1,000 sleep researchers from around the world. Czeisler’s term as president is one year.

• Martin Sanda, HMS associate professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the 2005 Young Investigator Award from the Society of Urologic Oncology. The award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of urologic oncology within 10 years of completing her or his residency.

• Harvard University awarded Mary Ellen Avery, the Thomas Morgan Rotch distinguished professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, an honorary doctor of science degree on June 9. Avery is best known for her discovery, in 1959, that respiratory distress syndrome in newborns is caused by a lack of surfactant, the foamy coating that helps lungs expand. In addition to her research, she established the Joint Program in Neonatology at Children’s, Beth Israel Deaconess, and Peter Bent Brigham hospitals.

• The American Diabetes Association Research Foundation honored four Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers with its Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation Pinnacle Program Project Award. Anthony Hollenberg, HMS associate professor of medicine; Christian Bjorbaek, HMS assistant professor of medicine; Joel Elmquist, HMS associate professor of medicine and neurology; and Young-Bum Kim, HMS assistant professor of medicine, were awarded the two-year, $1.5 million grant for their study of the interaction of the brain and hormones that affect obesity and blood glucose metabolism.

• Selwyn Rogers, HMS assistant professor of surgery at BWH, was named BWH’s second Nesson Fellow. The two-year fellowship is given to a health care professional interested in policy and community health. Rogers will make use of the fellowship in his work at the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health, a new facility that he directs.

• George Canellos, the William Rosenberg professor of medicine at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, was honored with the San Salvatore Foundation award at the Ninth International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma in Switzerland. Canellos, the second American to receive the award, was recognized for his work in the development of effective treatments for lymphoma.

• Kevin Chan, a doctoral student at HSPH, received the Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, Canada’s largest scholarship for doctoral studies in the social sciences and humanities. Chan was awarded the $160,000 prize for his work in international pediatric health. His current research project examines the little-known “informal” health sector in rural China, made up of voluntary health workers, pharmacists, and families, and the sector’s economic contribution to the greater health system.

• Lawrence Epstein, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was appointed president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies on June 20. Epstein will serve a one-year term for the AASM, a professional membership organization dedicated to the advancement of sleep medicine and related research.

• Ann Hochschild, HMS professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, has been elected a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology for her research on transcription regulation in bacteria. The academy is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology, the world’s oldest life sciences organization.

• The National Multiple Sclerosis Society presented Howard Weiner, the Robert L. Kroc professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with its Hope Award. The award is the society’s highest honor for a leader “who demonstrates outstanding philanthropic and community service.” Weiner established the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center at BWH in 2000 and serves as co-director of the hospital’s Center for Neurologic Diseases.

• Rebecca Ralph, a postdoctoral fellow in McLean Hospital’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center, was honored with the Alfred Pope Award for Young Investigators. The award is McLean’s most important research award, which Ralph received for incorporating the use of genetically altered mice in models related to mental illness.

• Daniel Kopans, HMS professor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, was given the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Breast Imaging in recognition of his contribution to the field. Kopans helped develop the field of breast imaging and created MGH’s breast imaging reporting system, upon which the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System is based.

• Jennifer Leaning, HSPH professor of the practice of international health and HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was given the Hippocrates Society’s 2005 Humanitarian Award for her work on international human rights. Leaning, a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights, has helped expose human rights abuses in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Soviet Georgia, Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, and the Sudan. The Hippocrates Society is a three-year-old organization that recognizes BWH staff for philanthropic works.

• Joseph Nadol Jr., the Walter Augustus Lecompte professor of otology and laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, was presented with the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association on June 4. Nadol was honored for his work in the field of temporal bone histopathology and his studies of cochlear implantation on spiral ganglion neurons and of cochlear implants.

• James Rowlett, HMS assistant professor of psychobiology at the New England Primate Research Center, was awarded the Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award by the College on Problems of Drug Dependence this June. The annual award recognizes early career excellence in the science of drug addiction. Rowlett was given the prize for initiating research on abuse of anxiolytic drugs and stimulants as well as on polydrug abuse.

• Loren Walensky, an HMS postdoctoral fellow and attending physician in pediatric oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston, received a career development award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for his work in apoptosis. The $500,000 prize was given to 22 young researchers entering their first faculty positions.

• HMS students Monique Anderson and Rachel Peragallo received second-place honors in the “Secretary’s Award for Innovations in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention,” a national award sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services, for their project “Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls: A Faith-based Community–Academic Partnership.” The Secretary’s Award honors students enrolled in health professions schools for their innovative ideas for health promotion or disease prevention projects. Winning projects receive government funding.

• Harold Dvorak, the Mallinckrodt professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the Grand Prix Lefoulon-Delalande-Institut de France 2005 for his discovery of the VEGF protein. He was given the award in conjunction with Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery, in Paris on June 15.

• Robert Moellering Jr., the Shields Warren–Mallinckrodt professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will receive the 2006 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundvation for Infectious Diseases early next year. The award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases or public health and is based on excellence in clinical and research activities, participation in the training of future leaders in the field, and positive impact on the health of humankind.

top