More Faculty Become AAAS Fellows

In addition to the faculty members listed in the Nov. 9 Focus for their election as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, five other researchers from HMS were named AAAS fellows.

Elected to the section on medical sciences were Jeffrey Gelfand, HMS clinical professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, for contributions to the field of clinical immunology and vaccine development; Jerome Groopman, the Dina and Raphael Recanati professor of medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for contributions to the field of hematopoiesis and HIV infection and to the discourse on science, medicine, and humanity; and George Tsokos, HMS professor of medicine at BID, for deciphering human lupus immune cell biochemistry and molecular biology leading to the identification of novel treatment targets and for providing leadership to the Clinical Immunology Society. Elected to the section on biological sciences was James Gusella, the Bullard professor of neurogenetics in the Department of Genetics at HMS and MGH, for contributions to the field of human genetics, particularly for the identification of genes responsible for human diseases such as Huntington’s. Elected to the section on statistics was Emery Brown, Massachusetts General Hospital professor of anesthesia at HMS, for contributions to statistical modeling of dynamic biological phenomena, especially involving circadian rhythms, functional imaging signals, and neuronal spike trains.

Professorship in Ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear and HMS Centers on Clinical Teaching

HMS dean Jeffrey Flier opened the Dec. 10 celebration of the Paul Austin Chandler Professorship of Ophthalmology recognizing the chair namesake as a “model clinician-teacher” in the Harvard Medical community. Chandler graduated from HMS in 1924, completed his residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and became an associate clinical professor at HMS and MEEI while attaining leadership positions in several ophthalmological organizations. Among his achievements was establishing the Glaucoma Consultation Service at MEEI.

Chandler’s daughter Jane Saltonstall sketched the domestic side of the eminent clinician in her talk, saying that what made him special was that “he had the gift to make everything we did with him fun.”

Liza Green, HMS Media Services

Jeffrey Flier (left) and Simmons Lessell share a moment at the Chandler chair celebration.

MEEI president John Fernandez remarked that in addition to Chandler’s accomplishments, the professorship highlights medical education. “Most importantly,” he said, “we’re celebrating Simmons Lessell,” the first incumbent. Fernandez and HMS ophthalmology professors B. Thomas Hutchinson and Joseph Rizzo all commented on Lessell’s prowess as a teacher and his humanity in dealing with others.

“He forms a deep emotional bond with those people who work with him,” Rizzo said.

In expressing his gratitude for the professorship, Lessell returned to the theme of medical education. He averred that Chandler’s impact was not as a researcher but primarily as a teacher. Going a step further, Lessell said that his appointment to the professorship by leaders at HMS may reflect “the increasing value that they have placed on clinical teaching.”

RFA Announced for Med Ed Fellowships
The Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education is pleased to announce a request for applications for one-year fellowships in medical education for the 2008–2009 academic year. The program was established in 1998 to provide faculty with the opportunity to develop the expertise and skill needed to launch or advance academic careers in medical education or academic administration. The Rabkin Fellowship is open to faculty with a primary appointment at HMS and who currently teach at a Harvard-affiliated institution. The deadline for receipt of applications is Feb. 29 at 5 p.m. Application materials may be downloaded from the Shapiro Institute for Education and Research website at http://bidmc.harvard.edu/applicationrequest. Inquiries may be directed to Jacqueline Almeida at 617-667-9120 or jmalmeid@bidmc.harvard.edu.

HSDM Wins First Gies Vision Award

The American Dental Education Association’s ADEAGies Foundation has awarded HSDM the William J. Gies Outstanding Vision Award for an academic dental institution. It is named after the founder of the Gies Report, which consists of descriptions and evaluations of dental schools in the United States and Canada. The honor recognizes contributions to dental education and global oral health and is given to institutions and individuals who are carrying forward Gies’s mission. This is the inaugural year for the awards, and they will be presented on March 29 during the ADEA’s 85th Annual Session.

News Brief

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Center has named two HMS postdoctoral researchers as Runyon Fellows. The three-year awards are presented to young investigators working on innovative projects in basic and translational cancer research. Eric Bennett, a research fellow in pathology in the lab of Wade Harper, the Bert and Natalie Vallee professor of molecular pathology at HMS, is utilizing rational high-throughput screening to identify new components that control the abundance of the tumor-suppressor protein PTEN. The goal is to identify new proteins that cooperate with known cancer-causing proteins to initiate oncogenesis. Elizabeth Sattely, a research fellow in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology in the lab of Christopher T. Walsh, the Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, is focusing her research on understanding how enzymes synthesize medicinal compounds in nature, which may contribute to the discovery of next-generation anticancer agents.

Honors and Advances

•Edward Benz, president of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and the Richard and Susan Smith professor of medicine at HMS, was honored with an ASH Mentor Award in Basic Science from the American Society of Hematology. Benz was recognized for his commitment to educating and mentoring hematologists early in their careers. He was nominated by former students and junior faculty, who in particular cited his support of women scientists.

•The World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies has selected Peter Black as the organization’s next president-elect. Black, the Franc D. Ingraham professor of neurosurgery and chair of that department at Children’s Hospital Boston, will serve two years as president-elect, four years as president, and two years as past president. Black is also the founding chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

•Arthur Kleinman, HMS professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital, was appointed the Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands while on sabbatical. The professorship includes the honor of giving the Cleveringa Lecture, which Kleinman delivered in November.

•Vikas Sukhatme has been named chief academic officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, succeeding Jeffrey Flier, who became the HMS dean last fall. In his new role, Sukhatme, the Victor J. Aresty professor of medicine at BID and HMS, will oversee the hospital’s academic and research programs.

Dean’s Community Service Awards Call for Nominations
The HMS Office for Diversity and Community Partnership is requesting nominations for the 2008 Dean’s Community Service Awards, which were established to recognize HMS faculty, trainees, students, and staff who have made outstanding personal efforts in serving the local, national, or international community. The deadline is Friday, Feb. 29. The Guidelines and nomination form may be found at www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/awards/csa. For further information, please contact Tracey Billy at 617-432-3020 or tracey_billy@hms.harvard.edu.

In Memoriam

Mortimer Buckley, professor emeritus of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on Nov. 24, 2007. He was 75.

Buckley received his BA from the College of the Holy Cross in 1954 and his MD from Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. He began his long association with MGH as an intern in surgery in 1958. His first academic appointment with HMS was in 1966 as instructor in surgery. After steadily advancing, he became a professor of surgery in 1977 and professor emeritus of surgery in 1998. He also served as chief of the vascular clinic at MGH from 1967 to 1969, before being named chief of the cardiac surgical unit in 1970, a position he would retain for nearly three decades.

Buckley was recognized nationally and internationally as a leading cardiovascular surgeon. He made significant contributions to heart surgery, including the first large-scale use of the intra-aortic balloon in patients in cardiogenic shock. He also pioneered approaches in surgical therapy to treat early complications of myocardial infarction, myocardial revascularization, and cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction.

He also served on multiple national and international committees. At one time, he was president of the Massachusetts Heart Association and, more recently, he was president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgeons. He was the recipient of many honors, including the Paul Dudley White Award from the American Heart Association in 1996.

Buckley is survived by his wife, Marilyn (Scully); a son, Tim of Wayne, Penn.; three daughters, Kara of Concord, Kathleen of Weston, and Deirdre of Hamilton; seven grandsons; and three granddaughters.

Graham Ramsay

Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery at HMS and Children’s Hospital Boston and founder of the field of angiogenesis research, died on Jan. 14. He was 74.

Folkman graduated from HMS in 1957 and began his surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as chief resident in surgery from 1964 to 1965. He began his career as an instructor in surgery for Harvard’s Surgical Service at Boston City Hospital, before being recruited to Children’s Hospital Boston in 1967, where he served as surgeon-in-chief for 14 years. That same year he became the youngest person ever appointed a full professor at HMS and was named the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery in 1968.

Folkman first speculated in the 1960s that angiogenesis is integral to the complex biology that enables and encourages the growth of tumors and other forms of cancer. He spent the last four decades validating this hypothesis, beginning with a seminal paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1971. The process of angiogenesis, Folkman argued, helps transform a tumor from a small cluster of mutated cells into a large, malignant growth. Rather than waging a toxic chemical and radiation battle with a tumor, one could starve it into submission by shutting down its blood supply.

More than 30 years later, drugs based on this field of research have been approved and now benefit more than a million patients worldwide. At least 50 angiogenesis inhibitors are in clinical trials around the world, and more than 1,000 laboratories are conducting angiogenesis research. Folkman’s work has also led to research on controlling abnormal angiogenesis in noncancerous diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Folkman is the author of some 400 peer-reviewed papers and more than 100 book chapters and monographs. He also holds multiple honorary degrees and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2006, he was one of seven people appointed by President Bush to the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Institutes of Health.
A longtime resident of Brookline, Folkman is survived by his wife, Paula; daughters, Laura and Marjorie; and one granddaughter, Hannah.

Edward Mason, retired associate clinical professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital, died on Dec. 26 of pneumonia following a stroke. He was 88.

Mason be-gan his psychiatric training at McLean Hospital in 1945. From there he fulfilled his military duty at Fort Sam Houston, a center for returning WWII veterans in San Antonio. In 1948, after discharge as captain, he continued his psychiatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Judge Baker Children’s Center. During his long professional career, he was associated with many Harvard teaching hospitals.

With a focus on children and an interest in photography, he started to make film documentaries. His 1962 film Children in the Hospital pioneered the documentation of the psychological effects of hospitalization on sick children, opening the way for parents to accompany their children throughout their hospital stays. He received numerous awards for his more than 60 films.

In 1964 Mason established the Harvard Medical School Film Program and Documentaries for Learning. For many years he chaired the film program of the American Psychiatric Association, where he was a life fellow.

He leaves his wife, Jean; his three children, Jeff Mason of Bainbridge Island, Wash; Julia Feudo of Lancaster and Andrea Nolin of Belmont; and five grandchildren. There will be a memorial celebration on March 1 at 11 a.m. at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge.

John Richard Pappenheimer, the George Higginson professor emeritus of physiology at HMS, died on Dec. 9 at the age of 92.

His works in capillary permeability and molecular sieving are classics in physiological literature. He contributed research to a wide range of disciplines within physiology, including capillary permeability, respiratory physiology, blood–brain CFC transport, and the neurochemical aspects of sleep. Recent work contributed to understanding of the absorption of sugars and amino acids in the intestine.

Pappenheimer received a BS from Harvard College and a PhD from Clare College in Cambridge, England. In 1953 he was awarded the lifetime Career Investigator position from the American Heart Association for his work on capillary permeability and respiratory physiology. He was appointed the George Higginson professor at HMS in 1969. Pappenheimer was a member of the American Physiological Society (president 1964–1965), the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and Honorary Member of the British Physiological Society. He published articles of original work over a span of 70 years and collaborated with colleagues from around the world.

He leaves his wife of 58 years, Helena Palmer; three children, Will Pappenheimer of New York City and Tyringham, MA; Rosamond Zimmermann of Lexington; and Rick Plant of Melbourne, Australia; and five grandchildren, Leo and Martha Zimmermann, Rudy Ott, and Ramsay and Freya Plant.

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