March 21, 2011

Cheers — March 21, 2011

BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER

Colleen Christmas, director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Bayview, has been named a Health Care Heroes finalist by The Daily Record. The annual awards recognize organizations and individuals in the health care industry who embody the spirit of the word “hero.”

BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF
PUBLIC HEALTH

David Holtgrave, professor and chair of the Department of Health, Behavior and Society, was recognized with the Positive Leadership Award from the National Association of People with AIDS and AIDS-Watch. The award recognizes AIDS advocates who have made major contributions in the past year to improving the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. Holtgrave was honored for his ongoing research on the effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness, of HIV prevention and treatment and housing interventions, as well as for his work on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The award was presented at a ceremony held Feb. 16 in Washington, D.C.

HOMEWOOD STUDENT AFFAIRS

A film by Benedict Dorsey, associate director of financial aid in Student Financial Services, was nominated as one of the “Big 8” films of the San Diego Black Film Festival. His first feature film, The Human Web, has been accepted in several film festivals across the country. Dorsey also serves as adviser for the Johns Hopkins Gospel Choir and as adviser/director for the university’s Dunbar-Baldwin-Hughes Theatre Company.

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
INTERNATIONAL

Arthur Burnett II, professor of urology and director of the Brady Urological Institute’s Basic Science Laboratory in Neurourology and the Male Consultation Clinic; Ali Bydon, assistant professor of neurosurgery, clinical director of the Spine Surgery program at Johns Hopkins Bayview, and director of the Spinal Column Biomechanics and Surgical Outcomes Laboratory; and Jeff Geschwind, associate professor of radiology, surgery and oncology and director of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology and Interventional Radiology Research at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, addressed physicians attending continuing medical education conferences at the four-day Arab Health Exhibition and Congress in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The event drew more than 65,000 medical and health care professionals.

Saraf Saleh has been named director for Middle East/North Africa, Global Services. Saleh most recently served as assistant director of global services for the Middle East/North African Division.

KRIEGER SCHOOL OF ARTS
AND SCIENCES

Kate Pipkin will become director of Communications and Marketing on April 1. She most recently served as vice president for communications at Goucher College, and before that was director of Communications for the Maryland Province Jesuits. She also held positions in communications and public affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

University President Ronald J. Daniels and Peter Searson, the Joseph R. and Lynn C. Reynolds Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering and director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, have been named by The Daily Record to its list of 2011 Influential Marylanders. Daniels was recognized in the field of education and Searson in technology. Winners are individuals who have an impact on Maryland’s business community and who bring services and success to the region. An awards ceremony will be held April 27 at the Grand Lodge in Cockeysville.

Four women from Johns Hopkins have been selected by The Daily Record as among Maryland’s Top 100 Women for 2011. They are Mariale Hardiman, assistant dean for Urban Schools Partnerships and chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education in the School of Education; Martha N. Hill, dean of the School of Nursing and a professor of nursing, medicine and public health; Elizabeth Jordan, assistant professor in the Department of Community–Public Health Nursing and co-director of the Birth Companions Program in the School of Nursing; and Janet Siddiqui of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians and an instructor of medicine at the School of Medicine. They will be honored at a May 12 reception at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

PEABODY INSTITUTE

Kisma Jordan, a Graduate Performance Diploma candidate, was the soprano soloist in Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Omaha Symphony in Nebraska in January. In February, Jordan sang arias in a program presented by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans.

Sungpil Kim, piano, a senior studying with Yong Hi Moon, received the first prize in the Jefferson Symphony International Young Artists Competition in Golden, Colo. He will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, with the orchestra on March 27.

Yury Shadrin, a student of Leon Fleisher, was awarded the first prize in the Peggy and Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. He will play Brahms’ Piano Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 83, with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra next season, and will give a Shriver Hall Concert Series Discovery Series recital at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Sejoon Park received the second prize and Michael Delfin, the third. Both are students of Boris Slutsky.

Larry Williams, faculty artist, was the featured horn clinician at the 2011 Music for All National Festival, held March 18 to 20 in Indianapolis. The festival, presented by Yamaha, celebrates outstanding music making by the nation’s finest concert bands, orchestras and percussion ensembles. As a Yamaha Performing Artist/Clinician, Williams presented three master classes for horn players from across the U.S.

Moritz M. Winkelmann, a Graduate Performance Diploma candidate and a student of Leon Fleisher, debuted with the Mannheim (Germany) Philharmonic Orchestra on Feb. 18. He performed the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, by Robert Schumann. German National TV recorded the performance.

SAIS

Eric Edelman, a fellow at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies and a professorial lecturer in the Strategic Studies Program, became a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor during a Jan. 18 ceremony in Paris. Edelman received this prestigious award from France in recognition of his work while holding senior leadership positions in the U.S. government. Edelman served as undersecretary of defense for policy, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Finland, and in senior positions at the White House and with the U.S. State Department.

T. Christian Miller, a master of public policy student, has received a George Polk Award, one of America’s most coveted journalism honors, for his reporting efforts. Miller, of ProPublica, was honored along with Daniel Zwerdling and Susanne Reber of National Public Radio for a collaborative effort called “Brain Wars,” which found that the U.S. military was falling woefully short in treating soldiers for traumatic brain injuries.

The 2009 religion-themed issue of SAISPHERE took the Gold award for Best Internal Publication by a Graduate School in the Educational Advertising Awards sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report. The school’s Summer Programs 2010 promotional materials took the Bronze award for Best Direct Mail Advertising Campaign by a Graduate School.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Frederick Brancati, professor and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine, director of the Hopkins-UMB Diabetes Prevention & Control Core and a core faculty member of the Welch Center, has won the 2011 Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology from the American Diabetes Association.

E. Gene Deune, associate professor of orthopedic surgery, co-director of the Hand Surgery Division at JHH and director of the Hand Surgery Microsurgery Section, has been elected secretary of the American Society of Reconstructive Mircrosurgery for 2011–2012.

Robert Ferguson, associate professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology at Bayview, and Mary Newman, an assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, have received two of the top awards for distinguished service from the American College of Physicians’ Maryland Chapter. Ferguson, chief of medicine at Union Memorial Hospital and a member of the Johns Hopkins faculty since 1993, received the Theodore E. Woodward Award for Medical Education and Research. Newman, president of Park Medical Group at Green Spring Station and a member of the faculty since 1984, received the Samuel P. Asper Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine.

Richard Huganir, professor and director of the Department of Neuroscience and co-director of the Brain Science Institute, will head a new Synapses, Circuits and Disorders program for the institute, funded with BSi grants totaling $5 million over the next two years. The grants advance BSi’s goal of addressing the fundamental role of synapses in brain function at the molecular, cellular or systems level, as well as exploring the mechanisms underlying cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and autism.

David Kass, professor of cardiology, medicine and biomedical engineering; Thien Nguyen, assistant professor of neurology; Shanthini Sockanathan, associate professor of neuroscience; and Jiou Wang, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, have received grants totaling $1,356,618 from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to study three different neuromuscular diseases. Kass will continue his work on Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, and Nguyen will continue his inquiries into Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a breakdown of peripheral nerves. Sockanathan and Wang will use the funds to maintain their research on ALS.

Stephen Meltzer, the Harry and Betty Myerberg/Thomas R. Hendrix Professor of Gastroenterology and an internationally renowned leader in the molecular pathobiology of gastrointestinal malignancy and premalignancy, has been elected to the Association of American Physicians. Meltzer, GI divisional director of basic research, invented molecular methods that have triggered an avalanche of research on precancerous lesions and also conducted a comprehensive study that led to the identification of several important tumor suppressor genes.

Nathan Neufeld, a resident in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is one of only three residents nationwide to be named an American College of Medical Quality 2011 Quality Scholar. The honor recognizes his work on improving the accuracy of discharge summaries.

SCHOOL OF NURSING

Jason Farley, an assistant professor in the Department of Community–Public Health, has been appointed a national co-chair of the 100-member Global Health Committee within the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. The three-year position will involve setting the global agenda of the organization.

Maryann Fralic, a professor in the Department of Health Systems and Outcomes, was in Dallas recently to address the chief nursing officers from the 15-hospital Baylor Health System. The topic, “Tomorrow’s Agile Nurse Executive,” focused on preparing chief nurses to meet the serious leadership challenges of a rapidly evolving health care system.

Seven researchers from the school will attend the International Orem Society’s Conference on Prevention and Management of Chronic Conditions and the World Congress of Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory, to be held March 23–25 in Bangkok, Thailand. Miyong Kim, chair of the Department of Health Systems and Outcomes, will lead the delegation comprising faculty members and doctoral and postdoctoral students. The Johns Hopkins team will conduct a symposium titled Innovations in Self-Care Research Targeting Underserved Populations and present four topics: “Theoretical Innovations in Self-Care Research,” “Methodological Innovations in Self-Care Research,” “Technological Innovations in Self-Care Research” and “Health Literacy as an Emerging Concept in Self-Care.”

SHERIDAN LIBRARIES/JHU MUSEUMS

Earle Havens, the William Kurrelmeyer Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Sheridan Libraries, has been awarded the 2011 Katharine F. Pantzer Senior Fellowship in Bibliography and the British Book Trades by the Bibliographical Society of America in support of his project “Illicit Printing, Book Smuggling and Scribal Publication by the Elizabethan Catholic Underground, 1558–1603.”

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

Trent Stroup, director of Information Systems for Development and Alumni Relations, has been elected to a three-year term on the board of Baltimore Reads, a nonprofit organization that offers instruction to adults in basic reading, writing, mathematics, English language, GED prep and employment readiness skills; engages in community outreach; and raises awareness of the adult literacy crisis in the Baltimore region. In addition, its book bank provides thousands of children’s books free of charge to schools, teachers, Head Start centers, social services agencies, community organizations and families who don’t have home libraries.

WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Bob Cammarata, a professor in Materials Science and Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the Materials Research Society. The title of MRS Fellow honors outstanding members whose sustained and distinguished contributions to the advancement of materials research are internationally recognized and who exemplify the highest ideals of accomplishment and service embodied in the organization’s mission.

Sri Sarma, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER award, given to faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers, is one of NSF’s most competitive awards and emphasizes high-quality research and novel education initiatives. Sarma’s CAREER research involves the modeling and control of neuronal networks in the brain with applications to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease using deep brain stimulation. This work has the potential to impact the interface between control systems and neuroscience and create new opportunities for medical treatment of neurological disorders.