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

Paula Einaudi has been appointed associate dean for resource planning and development. She was formerly associate dean for development and alumni relations in the School of Nursing.

Melissa Hilbish has been appointed associate program chair of the Master of Liberal Arts program. Hilbish, who holds a bachelor's degree in history and a doctorate in American studies, has taught at George Mason University and the University of Maryland. She also has worked as an administrator, an archival scholar and an underwater archaeologist. She will assume her position July 1.

Anita Alves and Jessica R. Shapiro were among 20 students invited to participate in the 2000 Governor's Summer Internship Program. Alves was placed in the Department of Business and Economic Development and Shapiro in the State House.

Meiling Hua and Arnab Chowdry were among 36 undergraduates selected to participate this summer in the Smile Train Scholars Program. Each recipient receives a grant of $2,500 to participate in clinical work or research related to cleft lip and palate. Hua is working with Lori Kotch, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Genetic Medicine, School of Medicine, on assessing the role of the Msx-2 gene in the production of ethanol-induced cleft lip and palate in mice. Chowdry's project is to further characterize the candidate region on chromosome 6q22 in order to clone the gene responsible for oculodentodigital dysplasia.

Engineering

Felicity Callard, a doctoral candidate in DOGEE, has received a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowships are awarded annually to graduate students studying topics of ethical or religious values. Callard's proposed dissertation title is "The Logic of Agoraphobia: Metropolitan Tales of Gender, Fear and Space." She will receive a stipend of $15,500 for a year.

Andrea Prosperetti, the Charles A. Miller Jr. Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences as a foreign member. The honor was given by the academy's Science Division in recognition of his outstanding academic work.

Medicine

John L. Cameron, Alfred Blalock Professor and chairman of surgery, has been elected president of the American Surgical Association. Established in 1878, ASA is the oldest surgical association in the nation; its presidency is the highest honor one can achieve in American surgery.

Peter Devreotes, professor of biological chemistry, has been named director of Cell Biology and Anatomy, effective June 1. Devreotes also served as director of the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate program for nine years.

Manel Esteller, a postdoctoral fellow in the Oncology Center, has been awarded the 2000 Young European Cancer Researcher Award. Presented by the European Association for Cancer Research, this award honors outstanding contributions to the discovery of cancer causes made by a young European scientist. Esteller will receive his award at the plenary session of the EACR annual meeting in Greece.

Linda P. Fried, a professor of internal medicine with a joint appointment in Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, has been awarded the year 2000 Herbert DeVries Distinguished Research Award from the Council on Aging and Adult Development for her contributions to gerontologic research.

Ralph Kuncl, professor of neurology and pathology and director of the Neuromuscular Pathology Laboratory, has been named a fellow by the American Council on Education, for academic year 2000-2001. The program is designed to prepare promising faculty and senior administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration. Kuncl, a national leader in neurosciences, was one of 33 fellows selected in a national competition.

Victor A. McKusick, University Professor of Medical Genetics and namesake of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the university at this year's commencement ceremony. McKusick, winner of the 1997 Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, was honored for his pioneering leadership in medical genetics and remarkable contributions as a clinician and teacher.

Jeremy Nathans, professor of molecular biology and genetics, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy, founded in 1780 by John Adams and other leaders of the young republic, will induct its new members on Oct. 14 at the House of the Academy in Cambridge, Mass.

Gregg Semenza, professor of pediatrics, won the 2000 E. Mead Johnson Award, given by the Society for Pediatric Research, in recognition of his landmark discoveries of how human cells respond to hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Semenza, who also serves as assistant director of the Center for Craniofacial Development and Disorders, received the award during the Pediatric Academic Societies and American Academy of Pediatrics 2000 joint meeting in Boston.

Stanley Siegelman, Radiology residency program director and professor of radiology, has been awarded the Gold Medal Award of the American Roentgen Ray Society. The medal is given to a select few radiologists whose contributions to the field have been exceptional. In addition to having a nearly 30-year career at Hopkins, Siegelman also has served as editor of Radiology, the principal journal in the field.

Staci Vernick has been named director of public affairs for the Children's Center. Prior to this appointment, Vernick served as associate director and acting director.

Bert Vogelstein, Clayton Professor of Oncology-Cancer Biology, professor of pathology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, received the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Charles S. Mott Prize. The award, which includes a $250,000 prize, honors contributions to the discovery of cancer causes or prevention. Vogelstein received the award at a ceremony that concluded a scientific conference at the National Institutes of Health.

Godfrey Pearlson, professor of psychiatry, has been awarded a Distinguished Investigator grant by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. Pearlson will use a new advanced brain imaging technology called 3-D diffusion tensor imaging to compare the connectivity of certain circuits of the brain in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic-depression) to those of healthy people. He will receive almost $100,000 for his study.

NARSAD also has awarded Young Investigator grants to five Hopkins researchers, each of whom will receive an award of $60,000 for his or her research in brain disorders. They are James Brasic, a postdoctoral fellow in radiology; Nicola Cascella, an assistant professor of psychiatry; Haiming Chen, an assistant professor of psychiatry-neurobiology; Samie Jaffrey, a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience; and James Potash, an assistant professor of psychiatry.

Michael Finnerin, formerly an HR manager with the state of Maryland, has joined Human Resources as compensation/HR manager. Also new is senior employment specialist Judith Kimball, who previously served as assistant director of corporate security services for JHMI. Returning after serving as HR manager for Upper Chesapeake/St. Joseph's Home Care for the past year, Donald Boswell is back as a senior employment specialist.

Physician Update has received a silver medal from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in the external audience newsletters category and a bronze medal in the publications improvement category. The newsletter, produced quarterly for 24,000 referring physicians in the mid-Atlantic region, covers new treatment approaches to challenging medical problems and the Hopkins experts who practice them. Physician Update is written by Gary Logan and edited by Edith Nichols.

Nursing

Jacquelyn Campbell, Anna D. Wolf Professor, was recipient of the Excellence in Research Award given by the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International.

Nancy Glass, community health nurse, received the Excellence in Clinical Practice Award from the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International.

Lori Edwards, an instructor whose area of expertise is community health, was this year's recipient of the school's Caroline Pennington Award. Named after a graduate of the class of 1918, the award recognizes qualities that define special teachers. Edwards, who received a master's degree from the School of Public Health, has taught at the School of Nursing since 1995.

Public Health

David Sullivan, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, has been chosen as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, for his proposal, "Iron metabolism in Plasmodium falciparum."

Xin Huang, a doctoral candidate at the Center for Human Nutrition, has received the 2000 Elsa Orent Keiles Award in Human Nutrition. The award is endowed by Keiles, who obtained her doctorate in biochemistry in 1925 from the school.

The Experience Corps has received the Archstone Award of the American Public Health Association. Created in conjunction with the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association, the award was established to recognize the best practice models in gerontology and geriatrics. Emphasis is given to innovative programs that have effectively linked academic theory with applied practice in the field of public health and aging.

University Administration

Judy Peregoff, director of the Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs, is among 13 Baltimore area individuals who will be honored June 23 by the Red Cross.

Peregoff will receive the American Red Cross Blood Services Hometown Hero Award for her coordination of successful blood drives at the Homewood and East Baltimore campuses.

Due to her efforts, Johns Hopkins has helped replenish the Red Cross' critically low blood supply with more than 1,200 pints of blood this year.