The Society of Scholars was created on the recommendation of former president Milton S. Eisenhower and approved by the university board of trustees on May 1, 1967. The society — the first of its kind in the nation — inducts former postdoctoral fellows and junior or visiting faculty at Johns Hopkins who have gained marked distinction in their fields of physical, biological, medical, social or engineering sciences or in the humanities and for whom at least five years have elapsed since their last Johns Hopkins affiliation. The Committee of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, whose members are equally distributed among the academic divisions, elects the scholars from the candidates nominated by the academic divisions that have programs for postdoctoral fellows.

The scholars elected in 2006 will be invested at a ceremony hosted by Provost Steven Knapp at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24, at Evergreen House. At that time, the new members will be presented with a diploma and a medallion on a black and gold ribbon. The induction — which brings to 490 the total number of members in the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars — will be followed by a dinner hosted by President William R. Brody. The new members will be recognized at Commencement on May 25.

The following listing gives a short description of the new inductees' accomplishments at the time of their election to the society, their affiliation at Johns Hopkins and the name of their nominator.

 

Stylianos Antonarakis, Geneva

Stylianos Antonarakis

Stylianos Antonarakis is widely known for his research in genetic mutations that cause several hereditary conditions, such as hemophilia and thalassemia, and in Down syndrome, a disorder of chromosome number. He is the chair of the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development in the University of Geneva Medical School in Switzerland. His department is recognized for its active role in research, teaching and patient care. Antonarakis spent from 1980 to 1983 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins Department of Pediatrics and in the Center of Medical Genetics (now the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine). He was nominated by Victor McKusick, University Professor of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medicine.

 

Henry Bohlman, Cleveland

Henry Bohlman

A professor of orthopedic surgery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Henry Bohlman is widely recognized as a leader in the understanding and treatment of cervical spine pathology, a focus he developed as a Johns Hopkins resident working under Robert A. Robinson, chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, between 1964 and 1970. Since then, Bohlman has not only clarified the epidemiology and etiology of cervical spine injuries, but he also has written seminal works on the anatomy and biomechanics of those injuries. Equally important is the role he has played in providing important training and mentoring for today's spine surgery leaders. In fact, virtually every leader in this field today trained at some point with Bohlman. That work continues today. Bohlman was nominated by Paul Sponseller, professor and chief of the Pediatric Division of the Department of Orthopaedics and vice chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

 

Daniel Denegri, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Daniel Denegri

Following his postdoctoral work from 1969 to 1971 in the Johns Hopkins Department of Physics and Astronomy, Daniel Denegri joined the international team that discovered the W and Z particles, the long-sought carriers of the weak nuclear force, establishing the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Considered one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, the discovery garnered the Nobel Prize for physics in 1984. Denegri played a major role in that discovery, building a key part of the instrument that detected the new particles. Denegri is currently working to extend the theory as a research director at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique in Saclay, France, near Paris. He was nominated by Jonathan Bagger, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor and chair of Physics and Astronomy.

 

Daniel Driscoll, Gainesville, Fla.

Daniel Driscoll

Daniel Driscoll is one of the best of the vanishing breed known as physician/scientists. His meticulous studies of patients with Angelman and Prader-Willi syndromes are considered milestones in the burgeoning field of epigenetics. Many consider Driscoll the premier clinician/scientist for the care of those with Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic cause of obesity. In fact, Driscoll devised a method that is now considered the gold standard for diagnosing the syndrome, and he characterized the mutations that are responsible for the disease. Today, he is training both scientists and clinicians at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where he is a professor of pediatrics and genetics and the John T. and Winifred M. Hayward Professor in Genetics Research. Driscoll was at Johns Hopkins for a residency from 1983 to 1986 and on a fellowship from 1986 to 1989. His nominator was Barbara Migeon, professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics.

 

Donald Gilden, Denver

Donald Gilden

Long after a bout of the chicken pox fades, the varicella-zoster virus that causes the illness lingers in the human nervous system. At the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he is the Louise Baum Professor and Chair of Neurology, Donald Gilden studies the impact of the latent virus. A second important project led by Gilden uses a molecular approach to understand and define immune system responses in multiple sclerosis with the ultimate goal of being able to pinpoint the antigens responsible for the disease. A native of Baltimore, Gilden came in 1969 to the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health), where he spent two years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow. He was nominated by Richard Johnson, Distinguished Service Professor of Neurology, Microbiology and Neuroscience.

 

Chih-Ming Ho, Los Angeles

Chih-Ming Ho

Chih-Ming Ho is an expert on nano-fluidic technologies and the wide spectrum of biotech and nanotech applications, such as gene sensing, drug discovery and health maintenance. One of the most frequently cited engineering researchers in the world, he has published 220 papers and holds seven patents. Ho is associate vice chancellor for research for engineering and physical sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he helped establish a micro-electro-mechanical system program that is recognized as one of the best in the field. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. At Johns Hopkins, he was an associate research scientist from 1974 to 1975 in what is now the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was nominated by Tza-Huei "Jeff" Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

 

Michael Kaback, San Diego

Michael Kaback

A professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Reproductive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, Michael Kaback is considered a world leader in the understanding and treatment of a genetic disorder known as Tay-Sachs disease, which affects primarily people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. In 1971 — a year after research led to the understanding of the biochemical basis of Tay-Sachs — Kaback produced an effective test to detect carriers of this disease and conducted Maryland's first mass public screening. He then spearheaded a national campaign to educate targeted populations about the importance of genetic screening, an action that resulted in far fewer cases of this uniformly fatal disease. Kaback was at Johns Hopkins from 1963 to 1968 as an intern and resident on the Harriet Lane Service and on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics. In 1991, he was the American College of Medical Genetics' Founding Fellow. He was nominated for the Society of Scholars by Aravinda Chakravarti, the Henry J. Knott Professor and Director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and professor of medicine, pediatrics and molecular biology and genetics.

 

Michael Kastan, Memphis, Tenn.

Michael Kastan

While at Johns Hopkins as a new assistant professor, Michael Kastan discovered that a certain protein, p53, functions as a "guardian of the genome," causing cells to pause and repair damage to their DNA before going on to divide. As p53 is the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer, this work has enormous implications for cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Kastan served as an intern, resident and fellow in the departments of Pediatrics and Oncology at Johns Hopkins from 1984 to 1989. He then joined the Johns Hopkins faculty, working in the departments of Oncology, Pediatrics, and Molecular Biology and Genetics until he moved to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis in 1998. Kastan is now chairman of the Department of Hematology/Oncology and director of the Cancer Center at St. Jude. He was nominated for the Society of Scholars by Martin Abeloff, the Marion I. Knott Professor and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Curt Civin, the Herman and Walter Samuelson Professor of Oncology and co-director of the Immunology and Hematopoiesis Division.

 

Jay Knutson, Bethesda, Md.

Jay Knutson

Jay Knutson is a leader in the development of laser-driven high-speed optical instruments and techniques used in the life sciences. Most recently, he applied femtosecond lasers to the study of water organization around proteins, the binding of DNA-controlling receptors inside cell nuclei and the energy production process within heart cells. Knutson's technical innovations have allowed researchers to make advances in the fields of biology and medicine. From 1980 to 1984, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins. Today, he is chief of the Optical Spectroscopy Section of the Laboratory of Biophysical Chemistry of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He was nominated by Ludwig Brand, professor in the Department of Biology.

 

Athan Kuliopulos, Boston

Athan Kuliopulos

Athan Kuliopulos is best known for his work identifying an enzyme that activates a receptor that results in cancer cell invasion and tumor growth. Kuliopulos' team was then able to block the spread of breast cancer in animals using special compounds that act on the inside surface of the cell, downstream from the enzyme and receptor. Now an associate professor of medicine, biochemistry and genetics and director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Laboratory at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, Kuliopulos was a postdoctoral student in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins from 1989 to 1990. He was nominated by Albert Mildvan, professor emeritus of biological chemisty and chemistry; Paul Talalay, the John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology; and Philip Cole, the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor of Pharmacology and director of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences.

 

Elaine Larson, New York

Elaine Larson

A leading clinical researcher and nurse educator, Elaine Larson is internationally known for her work in infection control and epidemiology. She is considered one of the experts in the field of hand hygiene and has become a leading authority on the use — and misuse — of antibacterial products. Her service on federal committees and presidential and congressional commissions has laid the groundwork for national policy on the use of antimicrobials and for funding of nursing research and management of HIV infection and Gulf War veterans' illnesses. From 1985 to 1992, Larson was affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health). Today, Larson is a professor of pharmaceutical and therapeutic research and associate dean for research at Columbia University School of Nursing and a professor of epidemiology at Columbia's Joseph Mailman School of Public Health. She was nominated by Martha Hill, professor and dean of the School of Nursing.

 

Liming Lee, Beijing

Liming Lee is a prominent leader in public health and medicine in the People's Republic of China. Following postdoctoral studies in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins in 1991-1992, he served as the dean of the Peking University School of Public Health from 1997 to 2000. As president of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine from 2000 to 2002, Lee led the mission to establish China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was appointed founding director in 2002. Currently a professor of epidemiology at Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, Lee gained international acclaim when he spearheaded the herculean effort to control the SARS epidemic in China. He was nominated by Guohua Li, professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

 

Mark Orringer, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Mark Orringer

Mark Orringer specializes in lung cancer surgery, esophageal cancer surgery and the diagnosis and treatment of chest wall tumors. His research focuses on improving methods of esophageal removal and replacement, as well as combined therapies for esophageal cancer and lung cancer. After completing his general surgery and thoracic surgery residencies at Johns Hopkins between 1967 and 1973, Orringer joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he has served as the head of General Thoracic Surgery since 1985. For more than 20 years, he has been an excellent teacher and mentor for medical students and surgical residents, and an outstanding clinical thoracic surgeon. He was nominated by Julie Freischlag, the William Steward Halsted Professor and director of the Department of Surgery.

 

Raymond Roos, Chicago

Raymond Roos

Raymond Roos is a nationally recognized researcher and leading clinician in the field of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis and prion diseases. He spent 1971 to 1976 at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, first as a resident and then as a postdoctoral fellow in virology and immunology. Now a professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Chicago, where he was department chairman from 1996 to 2004, Roos is considered an authority on the relationship between viral infection and neurological disease. He has edited one book and authored or co-authored more than 100 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, nearly 50 book chapters and more than 150 abstracts. A highly respected clinical neurologist and teacher, both at the bedside and at the bench, Roos has been consistently funded by NIH and voluntary agencies for his research, and he is an outstanding example of the complete clinician/teacher/investigator. He was nominated by Richard Johnson, Distinguished Service Professor of Neurology, Microbiology and Neuroscience.

 

David Serwadda, Kampala, Uganda

David Serwadda

During his first year of residency, David Serwadda investigated an outbreak of a new disease in southwestern Uganda. In doing so, he was the first to recognize slim disease, or AIDS, in East Africa. This led Serwadda to a lifelong commitment to HIV prevention and sowed the seeds of what would, in 1987, become the internationally recognized Rakai Health Sciences Program, which has made major contributions to the epidemiology, basic science and clinical science needed for the control of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the program's collaborators is Johns Hopkins, where Serwadda was a postdoctoral fellow and earned his master's degree in public health in 1991. Today, he is director of the Makerere University Institute of Public Health in Uganda, the premier school of public health in sub-Saharan Africa. He was nominated for the Society of Scholars by Ronald Gray, professor in the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences.

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