For the Record: Cheers

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.

 

Applied Physics Laboratory

A team of staff members was recently presented with the Missile Defense Agency's first-ever Technology Pioneer Award. The award, presented March 24 during the annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference in Washington, D.C., was created to recognize individuals or small groups who have made outstanding contributions to technology and the advancement of missile defense in the past 24 years. A group award went to an APL team that, in the mid-1980s, helped develop the Delta 180 mission concept to demonstrate the feasibility of tracking and destroying an accelerating booster rocket in space. The program was part of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative to defend against potential incoming ballistic missiles threatening the United States. The team included current Space Department members Larry Crawford, department head and former Delta 180 aircraft instrumentation manager; Courtney Ray, a former lead analyst for Delta 180; Thomas Coughlin, then Delta 180 APL science module program manager; and three former employees.

 

Bayview Medical Center

Lora Bankova, a research postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, has received the Skin Diseases Research Award for 2006 from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. The award provides $25,000 to fund her research for a year.

Bruce Bochner, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, has been elected to the Association of American Physicians.

Jinshui Fan, a research postdoctoral fellow in the Asthma and Allergy Center, has been named the first David G. Marsh Genetics of Asthma and Allergic Diseases Award Fellow. Named after the late SoM professor of medicine acknowledged as the "father of the genetics of allergy," the award includes a $500 cash prize and $2,000 to be applied to the recipient's research.

Li Gao, a research associate in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology's genetics facility and genomics core, has received the Interest Section Award for 2006 from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. The award provides $20,000 to fund her research for a year.

Thomas Reifsnyder, assistant professor at the School of Medicine, has been appointed chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery. A magna cum laude graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Reifsnyder received his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed a surgical residency and a fellowship in vascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a fellowship in endovascular surgery at Southern Illinois University. Reifsnyder was previously vice chairman of the Surgery Department at Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh. He received the Educator of the Year Award in 1996 from that hospital and was recognized as one of the Top 100 Doctors by Money magazine in 2003.

 

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Ron Brookmeyer, professor of biostatistics and chair of the Master of Public Health Program, has been named chair-elect of the Statistics Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Diane Griffin, professor and chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, has begun her term as chair of the AAAS Medical Sciences Section.

The Department of Biostatistics has recognized three doctoral candidates with awards. Kenny Shum received the Helen Abbey Award for Excellence in Teaching; Brian Egleston, the Jane and Steve Dykacz Award for Best Paper in Medical Statistics; and Horzmuzd Katki, the Margaret Merrell Award for Excellence in Research.

Winners of the 2006 Louis I. and Thomas D. Dublin Award honoring student research at the interface of biostatistics and epidemiology are Kelly Benke, Epidemiology; Yun Lu, Biostatistics; and J. Morel Symons, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences.

 

School of Medicine

Marilyn S. Albert, professor in the Department of Neurology, has received the 2006 Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute Award recognizing her contributions to Alzheimer's research. The award was presented April 5 by the Alzheimer's Association at its national gala. Albert is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, former chair of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. With her husband, Guy McKhann, a professor in the Department of Neurology, she co-wrote a book about the aging brain titled Keep Your Brain Young (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Curtis Chong, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate in Pharmacology, is one of 16 graduate students from North America and Asia who have been chosen to receive the 2006 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The recipients will participate in a scientific symposium May 5 and 6 at the Hutchinson Center in Seattle and receive an honorarium from the Weintraub and Groudine Fund, established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars.

Curt Civin, co-director of Immunology and Hematopoiesis in the Kimmel Cancer Center, has received the Return of the Child Award from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The award recognizes researchers striving to find a cure and clinicians working to improve the quality of life of patients. Civin previously served as director of the Division of Pediatric Oncology.

Mark Hughes, assistant professor of medicine, has been appointed Blaustein Scholar in the Ethics of Clinical Practice at the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute for the 2006-2007 academic year. The appointment, a continuation of a scholarship awarded the previous year, supports his work on the ethics of everyday clinical practice and ethics education in Johns Hopkins' residency programs.

Trish Perl, associate professor of medicine and director of hospital epidemiology and infection control, has been appointed president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology. The society advances health care epidemiology and works to maintain the highest quality of patient care and health care worker safety.

Matthias Stuber, associate professor of radiology, radiological science and electrical engineering, has been awarded first place in the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance's best basic abstract competition.

Glenn Treisman, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has received the William C. Menninger Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians for his contributions to medicine and psychiatry.

Gary Wand, professor of medicine and psychiatry and director of the Endocrine Training Program, has been elected to the Association of American Physicians.

Myron Weisfeldt, the William Osler Professor of Medicine and director of the Department of Medicine, has received the American College of Physicians' John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine.

 

School of Nursing

Marguerite Baty, a doctoral student, was selected to participate in the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Scholars Program for 2006-2008. She will work with the Reach Out and Connect project of the Ozark Mountain Health Network in Clinton, Ark.

Cynda Rushton, associate professor in Undergraduate Instruction, and Dan Sheridan, assistant professor in Graduate Instruction, were named Health Care Nurse Heroes by Maryland's Daily Record. Rushton was recognized for her leadership in the field of pediatric palliative care and Sheridan for his tireless advocacy for the nursing care of patients victimized by abuse and neglect.

Elizabeth "Ibby" Tanner, assistant professor in Graduate Instruction, has been appointed a commissioner for the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education.

 

School of Professional Studies in Business and Education

Jay Liebowitz, professor in the Graduate Division of Business and Management's Department of Information Technology, is the author of a new book, Strategic Intelligence: Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management, just published by CRC Press. The book examines synergies among component pieces of strategic intelligence, and demonstrates how businesses can best use internal and external information to make better operating decisions.

 

University Administration

Edgar Roulhac, vice provost for academic services, has been named to the Maryland Higher Education Commission's Academic Advisory Group. The 12-member review panel will work toward updating and improving regulations governing the approval of new institutions and new academic programs.

The Office of Design and Publications has received a gold medal in Admissions Marketing Report's Admissions Advertising Awards Competition for its Total Recruitment Package. The winning entry — which was produced for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in an effort spearheaded by Maggie Kennedy, communications manager — consisted of the viewbook, application, map; and engineering, liberal arts and multicultural brochures. The design team was led by Royce Faddis and included Megan Van Wagoner, Brian Greenlee and Doug Behr. Diane Bockrath, Admissions communications specialist, and Bob Gray, consultant/writer, provided the copy. Marketing research was conducted by Kennedy, Gray and Bockrath.

 

Whiting School of Engineering

David Gracias, assistant professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has received a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for his proposal "Self-assembled Micro Containers for Encapsulation and Remote-controlled Release of Chemicals." The $264,000 award is payable over three years. The foundation's annual symposium, which highlights the work of four classes of young investigators, will be held Aug. 25 and 26 at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, Calif.

 
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