January 19, 2010
Cheers — January, 2010
JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
Barbara Cook, medical director of Johns Hopkins’ TAP (The Access Partnership) program, which improves access to specialty care for uninsured East Baltimore patients; Desiree De La Torre, TAP’s project manager; Matt Emerson, TAP’s senior analyst; and Anne Langley, director of TAP, won the Service Quality Award from Permanente Journal for their poster presentation on TAP at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s national forum last December. The Johns Hopkins program bested 11 other finalists, chosen out of 400 applicants for the award.
Dome has received the Association of American Medical Colleges’ top award for excellence as an internal audience periodical, and Hopkins Medicine has received the award for excellence for external audience publications. The AAMC’s Group of Institutional Advancement praised both publications for their writing and illustrations. Dome is edited and largely written by Mary Ellen Miller and Judith Minkove of the Editorial Services Division of the Office of Marketing and Communications. Amy Goodwin is its managing editor, and Maxwell Boam, head of the office’s design group, oversees its layout. Keith Weller is the photographer for both publications. Hopkins Medicine is edited by Sue DePasquale. Ramsey Flynn, its associate editor, also received a citation for his winter 2009 feature article “Thinking Large,” about the effort of Akhilesh Pandey, associate professor of genetics, to pin down the entire human proteome. Two other OMC publications, Change and On Guard, received honorable mention citations in the AAMC’s internal audience category. Both are edited by Jamie Manfuso and designed by David Dilworth, with feature stories written by Manfuso, Linell Smith and Stephanie Shapiro.
PEABODY INSTITUTE
Markand Thakar, of the orchestral conducting faculty and music director of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, traveled to China with the BCO at the end of December to perform five concerts in Suzhou. The concerts, featuring a light Viennese repertoire, were organized by Christopher Chen, a doctoral candidate in conducting who is a student of Thakar and Gustav Meier. Chen is artistic director of the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center, a new venue in the city, which has a population of nearly 6 million.
The Lyric Brass Quintet, which includes French hornist Larry Williams, a Conservatory and Preparatory faculty member, and trombonist Brandon Rivera, a Preparatory faculty member, released a third CD, Ancient Noels, in December.
Junior Ta-Wei Tsai, a student of Marian Hahn, was awarded first prize in Peabody’s Harrison L. Winter Piano Competition. Tsai will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra or Peabody Concert Orchestra next season. Second prize went to Eunkyung Yoon, a graduate professional diploma candidate studying with Yong Hi Moon.
The Dahlia Flute Duo, consisting of master of music candidates Mary Matthews, a student of Emily Skal; and Melissa Wertheimer, a student of Laurie Sokoloff, has received a CMS-Yamaha In-Residence Fellowship. The grant, sponsored by the College Music Society, will fund a series of free lecture-recitals, each with informational booklets for audience members, at the Florence Bain Senior Center in Columbia, Md. The lectures will take place at 1 p.m. on Jan. 15, March 5 and May 7. The duo will also give the first lecture, “The Operatic Flute,” on Feb. 20 at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair in Reston, Va.
SAIS
S. Frederick Starr, research professor and chair of the Central Asia–Caucasus Institute, was recognized by New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks with a Sidney Award for one of the best magazine essays of the year. Brooks said that Starr’s article “Rediscovering Central Asia,” which was published in The Wilson Quarterly, is “an eye-opening look at what once was.”
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Peter Burger, professor of pathology, neurological surgery and oncology, has received the American Association of Neuropathologists’ Award for Meritorious Contributions to Neuropathology. Recognized as “a leader among leaders” in his field, Burger is internationally known for his work on adult and pediatric brain tumors. Renowned as a clinician, scholar and teacher, he has written more than 400 papers, book chapters and monographs, as well as eight books. Between his 17 years at Hopkins and the previous 20 years at Duke, he has taught at least 40 neuropathology fellows and hundreds of pathology residents.
Allen Everett, associate professor of pediatric cardiology, has won more than $460,000 in federal stimulus grants to identify the biomarkers of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, a progressive and highly lethal condition in children and adults characterized by persistently elevated pressure in the artery that carries blood from the heart to the lungs. Biomarkers are biological substances that can be measured in bodily fluids or tissues and serve as “byproducts” or “footprints” of a disease’s presence and activity. Uncovering the biomarkers for IPH would enable physicians to better monitor the disease’s progression and response to treatment.
Michelle Petri, professor of medicine and co-director of the Lupus Pregnancy Center at Johns Hopkins, has received grants from the Lupus Foundation of America’s National Research Program to validate the American College of Rheumatology’s diagnostic criteria for lupus and help identify promising biomarkers that may facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Lupus is an acute, chronic autoimmune disease that disrupts the immune system, causing inflammation and tissue damage that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, seizures, miscarriages and organ failure. Ninety percent of lupus sufferers are women.
Lillie Shockney, University Distinguished Service Associate Professor of Breast Cancer and administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center, will be inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in March.
SCHOOL OF NURSING
Deborah A. Gross, the Leonard and Helen Stulman Professor in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing in the Department of Acute and Chronic Care, has been appointed to the new Institute of Medicine Committee on Pediatric Health and Health Care Quality Measures. The committee is charged with reviewing the quality of health care for children of all ages including preventive and corrective treatments for physical, mental and developmental conditions.
Doctor of nursing practice students Erin Turner and Andrea Parson Schram have been chosen to participate in the Executive Mentorship Program, which offers exceptional DNP students financial support aimed at building a yearlong relationship with an executive mentor. Turner, a nurse manager at the Clinical Research Unit of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Johns Hopkins, will be mentored by Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross. Schram, a family nurse practitioner in primary care and a clinical instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington, will be mentored by Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.
SHERIDAN LIBRARIES/JHU MUSEUMS
Sayeed Choudhury, Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center and associate dean of university libraries, has been elected to the council of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. An international association of about 700 academic institutions and research organizations, ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation and methods of analysis for the social science research community. Choudhury was also elected to the board of directors of DuraSpace, a nonprofit organization promoting leadership and innovation in open source and cloud-based technologies for libraries, universities, research centers and cultural heritage organizations.
WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
Greg Chirikjian, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, one of the organization’s most prestigious honors. His elevation to IEEE fellow on Jan. 1 was made in recognition of his contributions to hyper-redundant manipulators.