December 14, 2009

Cheers — December, 2009

ACADEMIC CENTERS AND AFFILIATES

Sandee Newman, professor in the Institute for Policy Studies, was elected vice president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the main professional association for the public policy field with a broad membership from academia, think tanks, government agencies, foundations and others.

Marsha Schachtel, senior fellow in the Institute for Policy Studies, was elected chair of the Financing the Demand for Green Jobs Committee of the Baltimore City Green Jobs Coalition.

The Johns Hopkins University Press, in cooperation with the Maryland Historical Society, published a book by IPS journalist in residence Joseph Sterne titled Combat Correspondents: ‘The Baltimore Sun’ in World War II.

BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER

Constantine Lyketsos, professor and director of Psychiatry, has been invited by Alzheimer’s Australia, that nation’s top Alzheimer’s organization, to make a lecture tour of the country and deliver a nationally televised address titled “Dementia: Facing the Epidemic.”

Physicians, managers and supervisors at Bayview who demonstrated outstanding performance in their work this year have received 2009 Leadership Awards. The honorees are Edward Bessman, assistant professor and director of Emergency Medicine; Rafael Llinas, associate professor and director of Clinical Services and Neurology (Physician Recognition); Michael Cole, administrator, Cardiology Services (Senior Director/Administrator of the Year); John Preto, director of Nursing, Medicine (Clinical Director of the Year); Jimmy Johnson, director of Materials Management (Nonclinical Director of the Year); Connie Ross, Patient Care manager, 6 surgery and A4W (Clinical Manager of the Year); and Suzette Ungvarsky, manager, Ambulatory Services (Nonclinical Manager of the Year).

BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Thomas Burke, associate dean for Public Health Practice and Training, has been named the Jacob I and Irene B. Fabrikant Professor in Health, Risk and Society. Irene Fabrikant, a distinguished teacher and researcher in the pathogenesis and prevention of infectious disease, established the professorship in 2000 in memory of her husband, Jacob, who was a pioneer in environmental radiology and a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins schools of Public Health and Medicine. Burke is also a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and directs the Johns Hopkins Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, he served as deputy commissioner of health for New Jersey and director of science and research for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. He received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and his MPH degree from the University of Texas.

KRIEGER SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Jonathan Bagger, vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral programs and a Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected to the board of directors of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Luigi Burzio has been appointed professor emeritus in the Department of Cognitive Science, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Richard A. Goldthwaite, professor emeritus of history, has been awarded the Renaissance Society of America’s 2009 Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jane Guyer has been appointed to the George Armstrong Kelly Professorship in the Department of Anthropology, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Stephen G. Nichols has been appointed James M. Beall Professor Emeritus in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, effective July 1, 2010.

PEABODY INSTITUTE

Jazz drummer Nasar Abadey, a member of the Conservatory faculty, and his group SUPERNOVA have been chosen as citizen diplomats by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. SUPERNOVA was selected as one of 10 ensembles, out of 35 invited to audition, that will travel to more than 40 countries in 2010 as part of The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad tours.

Rebecca Henry, who holds the Scott Bendann Chair in Classical Music, gave a master class for string pedagogy students at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music during a November trip to Chicago by students in the Preparatory’s Pre-Conservatory Violin Program.

A 41-movement work for French horn and cello by faculty member Michael Hersch had its premiere performance on Oct. 17 at St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia. The performance was reviewed in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Hersch was interviewed on Philadelphia public radio station WRTI.

Violinist Pervinca Rista, a graduate performance diploma candidate studying with Victor Danchenko, was named winner of the 2009 Performing Arts Award in Instrumental Performance. The award was given by the Golden Key International Honors Society, a college organization that admits only the top 10 percent of students from universities across the country.

Sophomores Rowan McGirr and Elizabeth Yang, violin; Santiago Osorio, viola; Emily Smith, violoncello; and Sheri Zweier, clarinet, performed at a reception honoring Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court. At the event, which was held on Oct. 15 at the National Education Association in Washington, D.C., the students played the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets and string quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Dvorak.

SAIS

Michael G. Plummer, Eni Professor of International Economics, will in January become head of the Development Division in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. He will be leading a team of researchers focusing on trade and development issues, mostly for nonmember countries. He will continue to teach his Asian Economic Development course, on a biweekly basis, at the Bologna Center.

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Michael Bender has been appointed professor emeritus in special education in the Department of Special Education, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Margarita E. Calderon has been appointed professor emerita of education and educational research, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Kathleen C. Barnes has been promoted to professor of medicine.

Peter Burger, professor of pathology, neurological surgery and oncology, received an Award for Meritorious Contributions to Neuropathology from the American Association of Neuropathologists during the organization’s annual meeting, held in June in San Antonio.

Elliot Fishman, professor of radiology and oncology and director of Diagnostic Imaging and Body CT, has received the 2009 Outstanding Educator Award from the Radiological Society of North America. Over the past two decades, Fishman has coordinated more than 100 continuing medical education courses for Johns Hopkins, reaching thousands of radiologists, and he developed one of the largest Web sites in medical imaging and the largest in CT, known as www.CTisus.com. Each month, nearly 50,000 medical professionals from more than 100 countries use the site.

Susan L. Furth has been promoted to professor of pediatrics.

Samuel Galvagno Jr., assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, has received the Teacher of the Year Award for the fellowship in multidisciplinary critical care. The honor, administered by the fellowship directors in the departments of Surgery and Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, recognized Galvagno’s contribution to medical student and resident education while serving as a fellow in the surgical critical care units from 2008 until this year.

Grover Hutchins, professor and interim director of the Division of Cardiovascular Pathology, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College of American Pathology in recognition of his years of distinguished service to the college’s Autopsy Committee and Forensic Pathology Committee.

Vassilis E. Koliatsos has been promoted to professor of pathology and neurology.

Christoph Lehmann, associate professor of pediatrics and health sciences informatics and director of Clinical Information Technology, has been elected secretary of the board of trustees of the American Medical Informatics Association. The 4,000-member organization also gave Lehmann its 2009 Leadership Award for his work on behalf of its mentorship program.

Anthony Kalloo, professor of medicine and director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, has received the Excellence in Medicine Award from the Institute of Caribbean Studies. Kalloo, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, received the honor at the institute’s 16th annual Caribbean American Heritage Awards ceremony.

Lloyd B. Minor, university provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, has been appointed University Distinguished Service Professor of Otolarygology–Head and Neck Surgery, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Roger Reeves, professor of physiology, has received a $450,000 research grant from the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation that will enable establishment of a Down Syndrome “Virtual” Center for Basic and Translational Studies and initiation of a Down Syndrome Cognition Project and Network. Since 2007, Reeves has received more than $860,000 in funding from the foundation for his work in studying two novel potential therapies to improve the cognitive function of Down syndrome patients.

Akira Sawa has been promoted to professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with a secondary promotion in the Department of Neuroscience.

The sixth annual Stanley L. Blumenthal, M.D., Cardiology Research Awards for the top American Heart Association–accepted abstracts by postdoctoral fellows went to Dou “Alvin” Zhang, for basic science; Chiadi Ndumele, for clinical science; and Valeriani Bead, for translational science. Roger Blumenthal, professor of medicine, and his mother, Anita, created the awards to honor his late father’s contributions to Johns Hopkins.

SCHOOL OF NURSING

Martha N. Hill, dean, was recognized as a Pillar of Cardiovascular Nursing Science at the 2009 American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing Dinner, held Nov. 17 in Orlando, Fla. Selection criteria for this honor were based on scientific or clinical advancement in cardiovascular nursing and the impact of that advancement on clinical practice, patient outcomes and/or costs of care. Hill’s research has focused on minority populations, particularly black South Africans and African-Americans, who are at high risk for developing cardiovascular problems. Hill partnered with other health care professionals to develop risk factor prevention and management for hypertension. Today, her community-based intervention and prevention treatment of hypertension is recognized around the world.

Julie Stanik-Hutt, associate professor in Acute and Chronic Care, has been appointed director of the Master of Science in Nursing program.

Nicole Warren, assistant professor in the Department of Community Public Health, earned the Maryland Higher Education Commission’s New Nursing Faculty Fellowship of $20,000 over three years. Warren, a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali from 1994 to 1996, joined Johns Hopkins this semester after two years at Chicago’s Loyola University School of Nursing. Her research interests include maternal mortality in Mali and the work environment of front-line health workers such as matrones, auxiliary midwives who provide most of the country’s reproductive health services. She also is interested in exploring the reproductive health needs of African immigrant women who have been affected by female genital cutting and now receive care in the West. She said she will use the fellowship to work on a pilot study in Baltimore to explore the childbearing experiences of Somalia-born couples.

WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, professor and chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. As a fellow, he joins the top 2 percent of the medical and biological engineering community. He was selected by his peers for this honor in recognition of “his seminal bioengineering research contributions involving a mechanistic understanding of the fluid shear effects on cancer metastasis and discovery of novel selectin ligands.”

Denis Wirtz of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been appointed to the Theophilus Halley Smoot Professorship in Engineering.