Cheers is a monthly listing of honors and awards received by faculty, staff and students plus recent appointments and promotions. Contributions must be submitted in writing and be accompanied by a phone number.

Arts and Sciences

Timothy DePeugh, a rising junior, is among the first group of Bridging Project Scholars named by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, an organization committed to ensuring that America's young people are prepared to assume leadership roles in all aspects of trade, security, cultural and educational relationships between the two countries. DePeugh is one of 30 American undergraduates who have been chosen to study in Japan during the 1999-2000 school year. There are currently more than 46,000 Japanese students in the United States every year studying at American universities, compared to fewer than 2,000 U.S. students in Japan.

Engineering

Nicholas Jones has been named chair of the Civil Engineering Department. Jones came to Hopkins as an assistant professor in 1986 and received tenure in 1995. His work has been recognized by the university with two teaching awards, by the state of Maryland with a Young Engineer of the Year Award and by the National Science Foundation with an Engineering Initiation Award and a Presidential Young Investigator Award. Jones has research interests in structural dynamics, flow-induced vibration and wind engineering.

Gerard Meyer is the new chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Meyer has been a member of the electrical and computer engineering faculty since 1972, becoming a full professor in 1981. He is active in several professional organizations and is a member of the Sigma Xi honor society. Meyer studies optimization theory, parallel computer architectures, and imaging and image processing.

K.T. Ramesh will assume the chairmanship of the Mechanical Engineering Department, effective Aug. 1. Ramesh brings to the position a strong tradition of concern for students and a rich research background in the mechanics of solids. He will succeed Andrew Douglas, who stepped down to become the new associate dean for academic affairs.

Health Services

John R. Burton, director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Bayview, has been named the first recipient of the Dennis H. Jahnigen Memorial Award. Presented by the American Geriatrics Society, the award honors Burton for his nationally recognized and distinguished career in geriatrics education.

Julie Ellsworth Cox has been named director of development at Bayview, a position she has held in an acting capacity since August 1998. Cox was previously director of major gifts and special projects. She is a certified fund raising executive through the National Society of Fund Raising Executives and is the Maryland society's immediate past president.

Ronald R. Peterson, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and Hopkins and Bayview hospitals, has been elected to a second one-year term on the executive committee of the Association of Maryland Hospitals & Health Systems.

Medicine

Edward J. Bernacki, director of the Division of Occupational Medicine and executive director of Health, Safety and Environment, is the new second vice president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, an international society of occupational medicine physicians.

Jason Brandt, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Division of Medical Psychology, has been elected president of the Division of Clinical Neuropsychology of the American Psychological Association.

Curt I. Civin, director of Pediatric Oncology and King Fahd Professor of Oncology and Pediatrics, has received the 1999 Inventor of the Year Award from the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Presented June 20 at the National Press Club in Washington, the award honors Civin for his invention of a stem cell selection process that has paved the way for more effective, less toxic cancer therapies. Attempts to isolate the stem cells that give rise to all other blood, marrow and immune cells began two decades ago but remained elusive until Civin's 1986 invention.

Patricia D. Fosarelli, assistant professor, Pediatrics, is the recipient of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council's Christian Life Award. Fosarelli, who works with children in the AIDS clinic, also is on the faculty at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore.

James C. Harris, a professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, helped plan the June 7 White House conference on mental health, which, among other things, emphasized what must be done to help children with psychiatric disorders. His presentation in Vice President Albert Gore's ceremonial office addressed the impact of managed care on teaching, the doctor/patient relationship and faculty motivation and morale at academic health centers. At the conference, Harris and Eunice Kennedy Shriver made a joint presentation on the problems of mental illness and mental retardation. Harris is president of the Society of Professors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the national organization that represents academic child psychiatrists.

Richard T. Johnson, professor of neurology, molecular biology and genetics, and neuroscience, has received the first annual Merck Pioneer in NeuroVirology Award from the International Society for NeuroVirology. The award recognizes a basic/clinical research scientist who has made significant contributions to the field.

Lloyd B. Minor, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, has received the Nicholas Torok Vestibular Award from the American Neurotology Society for his identification of the superior canal dehiscence syndrome.

Donald L. Price, professor in the departments of Pathology, Neurology and Neuroscience, has received a five-year, $500,000 Bristol-Myers Squibb unrestricted neuroscience research grant to support investigation of the mechanisms and therapies of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Price, director of the Division of Neuropathology and of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Hopkins Hospital, was hailed as a world-recognized scientist who has made seminal contributions in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. He also is the recently appointed president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience.

Levi Watkins Jr., professor of cardiac surgery and associate dean for postdoctoral programs, received the Heritage Award at the June 11 Plenary Session of the Medical and Surgical Association for his work in both medicine and human rights. Established in 1973 by the University Alumni Association, the award honors friends of Hopkins who have contributed outstanding service to the progress and activities of the university for many years.

Michael A. Williams, assistant professor of neurology, has been named chairman-elect of the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs. The 12-member CAS advises the AMA on developments in the scientific aspects of medicine and biomedical research that warrant AMA policy or public attention. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has awarded honors to four Office of Communications and Public Affairs publications. In the internal audience category, Change, edited by Patrick Gilbert, won a CASE silver medal, and in the external newsletter category, a bronze went to Hopkins Internist, edited by Gary Logan. Two OCPA-produced brochures, The Institute of Medical Genetics and How We Do It, JHM's annual report, also won bronzes.

University Administration

Estelle A. Fishbein, vice president and general counsel, received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of College and University Attorneys at its annual conference in Nashville, Tenn. The award, the highest bestowed by this organization, recognized Fishbein for "her extraordinary service and her outstanding contributions to higher education, to the legal field and to [the] association."

Michael C. Purdy has joined the Homewood Office of News and Information as a senior media representative covering the sciences. Purdy, who graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia, previously served as the basic sciences writer at JHMI from 1994 to 1998. His beats will include physics, astronomy, Earth and planetary sciences, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, biology, biophysics, chemistry, mathematics and history of science, medicine and technology.