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

Andrew Cheng has been appointed chief scientist for the Space Department. He was previously assistant supervisor for the Science and Analysis Branch and supervisor of the Planetary Exploration Group. He recently completed a yearlong assignment at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., serving as deputy chief scientist for Space Science in NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Mohammad Dehghani is the new head of the Technical Services Department. Coming to APL after 11 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., he leads a department responsible for engineering, design and fabrication support, plant operations and maintenance, and construction management. Dehghani replaces Harry Charles, now the chief scientist in APL's Milton Eisenhower Research Center.

Jim McAdams, MESSENGER mission design lead engineer, was named the 2008 Engineer of the Year by the Baltimore Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Presenting the award on May 28, APL's Tom Strikwerda said that McAdams "optimized the trajectory and maneuver schedule, designing one of the most challenging planetary missions in history."

 

Bayview Medical Center

Carol Mitchell, administrative supervisor in the Development Office, has received the University of Baltimore's President Award for her academic excellence, leadership and outstanding contributions to the community and university. She also received the Outstanding Merit Award for her exemplary leadership in the Black Student Union. She is a first-year master's candidate in public administration at the university.

 

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Robert S. Lawrence, professor and founder of the Center for a Livable Future, was installed on June 3 as the inaugural Center for a Livable Future Professor. The center was established in 1996 to conduct interdisciplinary studies on the impact of industrial agriculture on food systems, equity, human health, the environment and inequities in food security. Lawrence has also directed the school's Health and Human Rights Certificate Program, served as associate dean for Professional Practice and Programs and was the inaugural Edyth Schoenrich Professor in Preventive Medicine. He holds appointments in the departments of Environmental Health Sciences and International Health, and in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine. Before joining the university, Lawrence helped found Physicians for Human Rights, where he currently chairs the board of directors. In 1997, the organization shared the Nobel Peace Prize for its work to ban anti-personnel land mines. He previously served as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1978, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and in 1998 was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians. In 2002 he was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism.

 

Carey Business School

Sue Hilger has been appointed senior associate director of development. With almost 20 years of marketing and corporate experience, Hilger will be primarily responsible for managing the school's corporate relationships and corporate advisory board. For seven years, Hilger worked for KPSS, a global hair-care company, in a number of different capacities; in her last position, as vice president, she was responsible for marketing the Goldwell and KMS California brands in North America.

Sani Silvennoinen has been appointed director of development, starting in July. He comes to Johns Hopkins from the Helsinki University of Technology in his native country of Finland as an on- site consultant for Brakeley Ltd., a London-based fund-raising and management consulting firm; at the university, he created a fund-raising operation and ran the first campaign of its kind and scale in the country. Before joining Brakeley, Silvennoinen worked in various fund-raising capacities at his alma mater, Yale University, and most recently was responsible for all European fund raising for the university.

 

Homewood Student Affairs

Jen Kasper has been named assistant women's lacrosse coach. She comes to Johns Hopkins from Stanford, where she was co-head women's lacrosse coach. Kasper will work with the Blue Jay offense and goalies while assisting in all day-to-day operations of the program. A 2007 graduate of UMBC, Kasper joined the Stanford staff last August as an assistant coach and was elevated to co-head coach early in the 2008 season. At UMBC, Kasper lettered four times as an attacker and twice earned Second Team All-America East honors.

 

Johns Hopkins Health System

Joanne Pollak, vice president and general counsel for Johns Hopkins Medicine and chair of its 2007 United Way of Central Maryland campaign, was named winner of UWCM's Community Ambassador Award for her dedication to the Baltimore City community, while Jennifer Nizer, director of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Child Day Care Center, received the Community Ambassador Award for Baltimore County.

 

Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Jerrold Cooper has been appointed professor emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern Studies.

Edi Karni has been appointed to the Scott and Barbara Black Professorship in Economics.

Pier M. Larson has been promoted to professor in the Department of History.

Liman Lievens, lecturer in the Language Programs, is the recipient of the 2008 George E. Owen Teaching Award, established by Student Council in 1982 to honor George E. Owen, who was dean of the Homewood faculties.

Beverly Wendland has been promoted to professor in the Department of Biology.

Dimitrios Yatromanolakis has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure, in the Department of Classics.

Two Johns Hopkins students were awarded $500 book scholarships by the American Marketing Association's Baltimore Chapter. Eric Chung is in the Writing Seminars, and James Freedman is a political science major. The merit awards are awarded annually to students who aspire to a career in marketing.

 

Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Melissa Thomas, associate professor of international development, is the recipient of the 2008 Max M. Fisher Excellence in Teaching Award, which honors the late Max M. Fisher, who was for decades an adviser to U.S. presidents on Middle East policy. The award, funded by the Marjorie S. Fisher Fund of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, is awarded each year at Commencement to one SAIS professor, selected by the graduating class, who teaches at the Washington, D.C., campus.

 

School of Medicine

Theodore Bayless, professor of medicine and gastroenterology, has received the Maryland Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy's Lifetime Achievement Award. The society praised Bayless' "tireless commitment to his patients, dedicated service to his peers and outstanding contribution to the profession of gastroenterology."

Tina L. Cheng has been promoted to professor of pediatrics.

Andrew J. Cosgarea has been promoted to professor of orthopedic surgery.

Christopher J. Earley has been promoted to professor of neurology.

Lawrence M. Nogee has been promoted to professor of pediatrics.

Duojia Pan, associate professor of molecular biology and genetics, is one of 56 new members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Combined, the new class of investigators will receive more than $600 million in research funding. Pan studies how organs know to grow to a specific size and shape. While much work has focused on the signals that help cells choose what roles they will play in specific tissues and organs, not much is known about how all the cells together determine the entire size of the organ.

Gregory Pontone, a research and clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been named an inaugural NINDS Clinical Trial Methods Fellow and will attend a course being held in August in Vail, Colo. He also has received a $75,000 grant from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation to pursue a mentored clinical research project with Laura Marsh, associate professor.

Srinivasa Raja, professor and director of pain research and the Division of Pain Medicine, has received the 2008 Wilbert E. Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award from the American Pain Society. The award recognizes Raja's outstanding career in clinical pain scholarship.

Daniele Rigamonte has been appointed the first holder of the Salisbury Family Professorship in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Gregory J. Riggins has been promoted to professor of neurosurgery and oncology.

Phillip R. Slavney has been appointed as Eugene Meyer Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Matt Specht, instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and John Walkup, associate professor and deputy director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, have received a $53,228 research grant from the Tourette Syndrome Association to do research on prolonged tic suppression and habituation of the premonitory urges that precede Tourette syndrome tics.

Levi Watkins Jr., associate dean and professor of cardiac surgery, was the commencement speaker for the 34th graduating class of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield.

Six Johns Hopkins physicians are on Black Enterprise magazine's list of America's 140 leading African-American doctors. Those cited as "among the best and brightest in medicine" are Arthur Burnett II, professor of urology and director of the department's basic science laboratory and male consultation clinic; Benjamin Carson, professor and director of Pediatric Neurosurgery; David Nichols, vice dean for education and professor of anesthesiology; Wanda Nicholson, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology; Neil Powe, professor of medicine and director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research; and Michael Trice, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery. In compiling the list, the magazine placed special emphasis on selecting innovative physicians "who have been involved in medical breakthroughs across specialties."

At convocation on May 17, awards for teaching went to Roy Ziegelstein, professor of medicine and cardiology, executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine and associate director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program (George J. Stuart Award); Michael Choi, associate professor of medicine, and David Weishampel, professor of cell biology and anatomy (W. Barry Wood, Jr. Award); Daniel Durand, house officer in Radiology (House Staff Award); John Lorsch, associate professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry (Graduate Student Teaching Award); Daniel Raben, professor of biological chemistry and physiology (JHU Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award); and Michael Caterina, associate professor of biological chemistry and neuroscience, Allan Gelber, associate professor of medicine and director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program, Maura McGuire, assistant professor of psychiatry, part time, and Stephen Yang, associate professor of surgery and oncology (Professors' Award for Excellence in Teaching).

 

School of Nursing

Deborah Gross has been promoted to professor on the Research/Education track.

Joan Kramer, adjunct, was appointed to the American Nurses Credentialing Center Content Expert Panel for the Ambulatory Nurse exam. Her term is from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2012.

Sarah Szanton, assistant professor in Nursing Systems and Outcomes, has been appointed as a core faculty member by the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health.

Jo Walrath, assistant professor in Health Systems and Outcomes, is one of 16 people honored at the University of Maryland as Pioneers in Trauma Nursing. Walrath served at Maryland's Shock Trauma Center in the early 1970s as both a staff nurse and nurse manager of the Critical Care Unit. She was honored for leading the initiative that brought primary nursing as a model of care to the Trauma Center.

Kathleen M. White, associate professor and director of the Master's Program, has been named by Gov. Martin O'Malley to the 12-member Maryland Health Quality and Cost Control Council. The newly appointed group will make recommendations on health care quality improvement and cost containment initiatives and facilitate collaborations in health care across the public and private sectors. Under the chairmanship of the lieutenant governor, the panel members — representing insurance carriers, employers, health care providers, consumers and health quality experts — are working to develop a plan to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care for individuals with chronic illnesses, and to help integrate health information technology in health care systems to ensure that such technology is used to its fullest potential.

On May 21, 109 students were inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing. Membership is by invitation to baccalaureate and graduate students who demonstrate excellence in scholarship, and to nurse leaders exhibiting exceptional achievements. This year, 80 baccalaureate, 27 master's and two doctoral students joined the Nu Beta chapter, established at Johns Hopkins in 1992.

 

Whiting School of Engineering

Edward J. Bouwer, chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, has been named the Abel Wolman Professor of Environmental Engineering, succeeding Charles O'Melia. Bouwer earned his doctorate in environmental engineering and science from Stanford in 1982 and joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1985. He has been chair of DOGEE since last July.

Ralph Etienne-Cummings has been promoted to full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

David Gracias, assistant professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been selected as one of 12 recipients of the 2008 DuPont Young Professor Award. This award is designed to provide start-up assistance to promising young and untenured research faculty. Gracias develops new methods to fabricate micro and nanoscale devices and integrated structures for applications in electronics and medicine. The DuPont award, which includes a $75,000 grant over three years, will support his research on the understanding of electronic conduction at the interfaces of organic semiconductors and dielectrics within functional organic electronic devices such as organic field effect transistors.

Sanjeev P. Khudanput has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.

Russ Taylor, professor in the Department of Computer Science and director of the Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology, has been selected as a co-recipient of the 2008 Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the robotics and/or automation fields by initiating new areas of research, development or engineering. Taylor's research interests include robot systems, programming languages, model-based planning and, most recently, the use of imaging, model-based planning and robotic systems to augment human performance in surgical procedures.

SEE ALSO "FOR THE RECORD: NURSING, SAIS HONOR TOP TEACHERS"
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