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

Jim Cheak, an APL security officer for more than 23 years, has been named Officer of the Year for 2005. Cheak also won Officer of the Year Awards in 1999 and 2000. Also recognized at the awards ceremony held in January were outstanding shift officers Stephanie McKay, Timothy Bradley and Janet Day.

Hans Widmer, of the National Security Technology Department, received the Navy's Meritorious Public Service Award for his "exceptional professionalism, personal initiative and total devotion to duty" while serving as the naval research sciences adviser on the staff of Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, from June 2003 to June 2005.

 

Health Divisions Administration

Audrey Huang, a science writer and molecular geneticist by training, has joined the media relations staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Division of Media Relations and Public Affairs. Most recently, Huang was a science writer and communications officer at the Genetics and Public Policy Center, part of the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Hopkins. Huang's responsibilities at JHM include coverage of research and policy for the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Cell Engineering and the McKusick/Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine. Divisions of the IBBS and other specific areas of interest are biological chemistry, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, biophysics, cell biology, comparative medicine, molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology and functional anatomy and evolution.

Huang holds a doctorate in genetics and a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. She has studied the molecular mechanisms involved in muscle cell development at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, mammalian embryonic development at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and chromosome structure in fruit flies and yeast during her postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology.

She holds a master's degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins and currently teaches a graduate course here in grant writing. She also has taught high school biology at Baltimore City College and worked as a cook at Gertrude's at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The Office of Marketing and Communications has received several awards from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The Award of Excellence in Electronic Communications went to Joan Levy and Glenn Simmons for the new electronic billboard in-house communications system at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Writer Judith Minkove received an Award of Distinction for her February 2005 Dome article, "Superman, M.D.," about tetraplegic physician S.B. Lee, former chief resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation. The office also was cited in the Premier Performance Integrated Advancement category for its patient safety initiative and in the Special Projects, Programs and Campaigns category for the JHM "Imagine" advertising campaign.

 

Institute for Policy Studies

Burt Barnow, principal research scientist, was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences' NASA Workforce Committee, which will examine demographic information relevant to the workforce needed to implement the Vision for Space Exploration and identify workforce skills needed in industry, government and academia to implement the effort. He was also appointed to the National Academy of Sciences Committee to evaluate the Fulbright Program.

Sandee Newman, director, was elected to the Policy Council of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. This is the governing body of APPAM, which is the lead professional organization for public policy analysts and practitioners. With IPS faculty Burt Barnow and Demetra Nightingale now serving their terms on the council, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies is the most well-represented public policy organization on the APPAM council.

 

Multidisciplinary

Six women from Johns Hopkins were among those recently honored by The Daily Record in its selection of this year's Top 100 Women. The contest, now in its 11th year, was created "to recognize successful female professionals who give back by mentoring others and working in their communities," according to the publication. The Johns Hopkins honorees are Kay Dickersin, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health; Lois B. Feinblatt, psychotherapist, JHMI; Julie Freischlag, chair of the Department of Surgery, JHM; Toby Gordon, vice president for strategic planning and market research, JHM and JHHS; and Martha Hill, dean of the School of Nursing. Recognized for the third time, Gordon now joins the Circle of Excellence. An awards ceremony will be held May 8 in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

 

School of Medicine

Staci D. Cummings, a graduate student in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, is the first recipient of the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation Research Scholar Award, presented by the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center to advance melanoma research. The partnership with the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation provides the first funding of its kind dedicated to scholarships for graduate student researchers. Although melanoma is the most serious and lethal form of skin cancer, responsible for 79 percent of all skin cancer deaths, it receives only about 10 percent of all funding provided to skin cancer research. Cummings is focusing her work on cancer biology, specifically a project that involves defining the role of certain proteins present in melanoma development.

Carol Greider, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics, is a co-recipient of the Wiley Foundation's annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. The award, shared with Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, cites Greider and Blackburn's discovery of telomerase, the enzyme that maintains chromosomal integrity, and their recognition of its importance in aging, cancer and stem cell biology. Greider and Blackburn are the first women in the foundation's five-year history to receive the prize, which includes a $25,000 grant.

The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science has been recognized in the first annual "Best of the Best" citations in Medical Imaging magazine. It was named among the nation's top five radiology departments within a hospital. Cited in the nuclear physicist/nuclear medicine researcher category were Elliott Fishman, Richard Wahl and Dean Wong. Recognition as a top radiologist went to Jeff Geschwind. Technologist accolades went to Robert De Jong. Women's imaging specialists Nagi Khouri and Katarzyna Macura were cited, as was radiology administrator James Philbin.

D. William Schlott, associate professor of medicine, has been elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians. In addition, he recently served as co-director of the first annual American University of Beirut/Johns Hopkins Review of Internal Medicine, held in Beirut, Lebanon, in February.

 

School of Nursing

Aisling McGukin, a part-time clinical instructor, was awarded the Refugee Women's Advocates Award for Outstanding Volunteerism from the International Rescue Committee at its first International Women's Day breakfast, held March 11 in Baltimore.

Robin Newhouse, assistant professor, has received a Mentored Scientist Award from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality. The award will support her research on rural hospital nursing and allow her to take classes in health services research.

 

University Administration

Glenn Small has been appointed director of communications for HopkinsOne, the multiyear project to modernize financial and administrative processes enterprisewide. He was formerly assistant director of the university's Office of News and Information.

 

Whiting School of Engineering

Marc Parlange, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, has won the prestigious John Dalton Medal 2006 from the European Geosciences Union for his work in advancing the concepts of fluid mechanics in land-atmosphere interactions. The medal was established by the Division on Hydrological Sciences in recognition of the scientific achievements of John Dalton and is awarded for distinguished research in hydrology reviewed as an Earth science. Parlange, who is currently on a three-year leave of absence at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland), will receive the award and give his medal lecture during the EGU General Assembly, to be held April 2-7 in Vienna, Austria.

Kenneth Potocki has been appointed program chair for Systems Engineering and for Technical Management in the Engineering and Applied Science Programs for Professionals, effective April 1. Potocki has been an active member of the EPP faculty for many years, teaching and developing new courses as well as serving on the program committees.

 
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