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Laurence Baker,
D.O., professor of internal medicine, associate chief of
the Division of Hematology/Oncology and deputy director
for clinical research at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center,
has assumed the post of chairman of the Southwest Oncology
Group. The Southwest Oncology Group is the largest cancer
clinical trials organization in the world; its National
Cancer Institute-sponsored membership and network consist
of nearly 4,000 of the nation's leading physicians at 283
institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada. Since its
inception in 1956, the Southwest Oncology Group has directly
affected the lives of more than 150,000 patients enrolled
in its clinical trials. |
 Ragavendra
R. Baliga, M.D., clinical assistant professor
in the Division of Cardiology, Section of Heart Failure
and Cardiac Transplantation, was nominated as Fellow by
the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, at its Council
meeting on July 25, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was nominated
for his contributions to medical education and for his
role as a physician-teacher. Baliga is also co-director
of the popular cardiovascular sequence for medical students.
He is a recipient of several teaching commendations and
honors including the TAMS Award, Galens Medical Society
and Nu Sigma Nu Medical Fraternity honors.
|
 Lisa
Colletti (M.D. 1985, Residency 1991), associate
professor and associate chair, General Surgery Section,
has been appointed to the position of associate dean and
director of Graduate Medical Education. She has been active
in GME at the Medical School since 1991, when she began
serving as the assistant director for resident education
in surgery, and in 1995, as the surgery clerkship director.
In 2001, Colletti became associate chair for education,
Surgery Department, as well as program director, General
Surgery Residency Program. She joined the GME Review Board
and the Program Directors Committee in the same year.
|
 Sharlene
Day, M.D. (Residency 1998), lecturer, Division of Cardiovascular
Medicine, was the winner of the 2003 American Heart Association
Young Investigator Prize for Thrombosis. Day received the
award on May 10 at the association's annual Conference
in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, held
in Washington, D.C.
|
Kittendorf |
George-Nwogu |
Anne
Kittendorf (M.D. 2001), house officer in Family Medicine,
and Uche George-Nwogu, M.D., lecturer, Department of Family
Medicine, were selected by the American Medical Student Association
to train with its Leadership Seminar Series. A goal of the
Leadership Seminar Series is to advance the training of primary
care resident/faculty physician pairs to meet the needs of
the public through improved leadership, communication and
advocacy skills, and knowledge of health policy and public
health. |
 Shengping
Li, M.D., Ph.D., research fellow in the Division
of Hematology/Oncology, has been designated by the American
Association for Cancer Research as an Inglenook Scholar-In-Training
for 2003. Li and the other 21 Inglenook Scholars-In-Training
were selected from hundreds of scientist candidates. Inglenook
Awards enhance the education of top, early-career breast
cancer researchers by providing the opportunity to attend
annual association meetings to present their work and hear
the latest research findings in their field.
|
 John
Lowe, M.D., the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor
of Medicine, professor of molecular medicine and genetics
and of pathology, was named in the Massachusettes Institute
of Technology's February 2003 issue of Technology
Review as a person to watch in 10 emerging technologies which
the magazine predicts will change the world. Lowe was specifically
selected for this elite list in the field of glycomics,
based on his work in sugars in immunity and cancer. He
is also a Howard Hughes Investigator.
|
 Howard
Markel (M.D. 1986), Ph.D., the George E. Wantz
Professor of the History of Medicine, professor of pediatrics
and communicable diseases, and director of the Center for
the History of Medicine, has been appointed to the 21st
Century Task Force for Health and Life Sciences at the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. This blue ribbon
commission of physicians, scientists, educators and community
leaders is charged with developing new exhibits and programs
on medicine and life sciences for what is the largest science
museum in the Western Hemisphere, and, in a recent ranking
by LIFE magazine, one of the world's top 15 museums.
|
 Jennifer
N. MacGregor, a graduate student pursuing a
Ph.D. in immunology, is the recipient of the 2003 Miller
Award for Immunology Research. The Immunology Program's
Graduate Student Affairs Committee selected MacGregor for
her proposed work, "Regulation of CD8+ T Cell Polarization
by the Transcription Factor T-bet," based upon scientific
strength and originality, graduate student qualifications,
and anticipated impact of the award on the student's training
experience.
|
McKenna |
Schnitzer |
Barbara
McKenna (M.D. 1981, Residency 1985), clinical
associate professor of pathology, and Bertram
Schnitzer,
M.D., professor of pathology, were among seven pathologists
nationally to receive a 2003 Commission on Continuing Education
Distinguished Service Award honoring George F. Stevenson,
M.D., by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.
Both were recognized for their contributions to continuing
education programs. It is highly unusual that two faculty
from one department are so honored. The pair received their
awards in September at the society's annual meeting in
New Orleans. The award honors Stevenson, a pathologist
who is credited with stimulating the enormous growth of
the Society over four decades. |
Rodgers |
Greenberg |
Phillip E. Rodgers, M.D. (Residency 1998), clinical
assistant professor of family medicine, and Grant
M. Greenberg (M.D. 1997), clinical instructor of family medicine, are
two of 12 scholars chosen from a pool of faculty applicants
across all U-M departments for the Medical Education Scholars
Program, designed to prepare Medical School faculty for
leadership roles in medical education. The program's goals
are accomplished through a formal curriculum in educational
theory, application and research; individualized guidance
and mentoring from a faculty member with expertise and
training in medical education; and collaboration with scholarly
experts and peers on specific educational issues and problems. |
 Thomas
L. Schwenk (M.D. 1975), professor and chair,
Department of Family Medicine, and professor of medical
education, was selected by the Society of Teachers of Family
Medicine to receive the society's Recognition Award. Schwenk
was honored with this award for his outstanding leadership
in advancing family medicine as a discipline; he received
the award in late September. The society includes 5,000
members who are teachers of family medicine. Since its
founding in 1967, the society has been dedicated to improving
the health of all people through education, research, patient
care and advocacy.
|
 Maria
Silveira, M.D., M.P.H., lecturer, Department of Internal
Medicine, has been honored with a Generalist Faculty Scholars
Award by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was presented
with the career development award in May. Silveira is currently
conducting several studies to understand how the quality
of end-of-life care can be improved for patients with life-limiting
conditions. Her theoretical work focuses on the ethics of
pain management.
|
 Jeffrey Beaumont Smerage, M.D., Ph.D., house officer, Department
of Internal Medicine-Hematology/Oncology Division, has been
awarded the first John R. Durant, M.D.-Walther Cancer Institute
Fellowship in Hematology/ Oncology. This fellowship will
be awarded annually, for a total of three years, to one senior
research fellow in the U-M's Hematology/Oncology fellowship
training program. Smerage's research focuses on monitoring
targeted therapies in breast cancer. He is currently developing
a system to monitor apoptosis and Bcl-2 gene expression in
tumor cells circulating in the blood of women with metastatic
breast cancer. The system will be used to monitor patient
response to new drug treatments for advanced breast cancer
and will be tested in future clinical trials.
|
 Yolanda
Smith, M.D. (Residency 1993), assistant professor
of obstetrics and gynecology, is the recipient of the 2003
American Medical Women's Association Mentor of the Year Award.
The association's mentoring program matches mainly first-
and second-year female medical students with U-M female faculty.
|
 Michael
Szymanski (M.D. 1979), clinical associate professor
of family medicine, was selected as the Family Physician
of the Year by the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians.
The announcement was made during the annual Congress of
Delegates meeting held on Mackinac Island in July. Nominations
describe Szymanski as an excellent diagnostician who "sees the whole
person" in his examination and treatment of patients.
|
 John
T. Wei, M.D., assistant professor of urology, won
the 2002 Excellence in Research for Physicians Award in
the area of clinical research. The award was announced
in August by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation
in recognition of Wei's research entitled "Comprehensive
Comparison of Health-Related Quality of Life after Contemporary
Therapies for Localized Prostate Cancer."
|
 John
A. Williams, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of Molecular
Medicine and Integrative Physiology, was elected to serve
as the 76th president of the American Physiological Society.
Since he joined the society in 1973, Williams has served
on its council, on four committees, and as chair of the steering
committee for the gastrointestinal section. Williams has
served as the chief editor of the American
Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, and has been a member
of that journal's editorial board for many years. He is also
an associate editor of News
in Physiological Sciences. Williams'
appointment was announced on April 23 in New Orleans at the
115th annual meeting of the society.
|
-MBR
Allen Lichter Reappointed as Dean
 Allen S. Lichter (M.D. 1972), dean of the University of Michigan Medical School
and Newman Family Professor of Radiation Oncology, has been reappointed dean
for a second term, from May 1, 2004, through April 30, 2009.
Appointed dean of the Medical School effective May 1, 1999, Lichter had served
as interim dean since December 1, 1998. He served as chair of the Department
of Radiation Oncology from 1984 to 1997, as well as director of the Breast
Oncology Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center until 1991. Prior to
1984, Lichter was the director of the Radiation Therapy Section of the National
Cancer Institute's Radiation Oncology Branch.
Dean Lichter is internationally known for his research in the treatment of
breast cancer. While at the National Cancer Institute, he was an early advocate
of the lumpectomy approach to the treatment of breast cancer and conducted
one of the trials that found the use of lumpectomy and radiation therapy to
be as effective as the traditional treatment of mastectomy. This work, along
with the other trials conducted in the U.S. and Europe, led to a revolution
in modern breast cancer treatment standards, emphasizing breast preservation.
Past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the largest and
most active group for oncology membership in the world, Dean Lichter is only
the second radiation oncologist to be elected to this prestigious position.
He also serves on the board of directors of the American Society of Therapeutic
Radiology and Oncology, and is one of six associate editors on the editorial
board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the world's leading cancer journal.
He is also co-editor of the textbook Clinical
Oncology, the second edition
of which was released in 1999.
Peter Ward Receives Prestigious Amberson Award
 Peter Ward (M.D. 1960), chair and professor of Pathology, has been chosen
as the 2003 Amberson Lecturer by the American Thoracic Society, one of its
highest honors. He is the first U-M faculty member to be honored with this
appointment. Ward received the award at the society's meeting in Seattle in
May in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments in the study of fundamental
mechanisms of inflammation and injury in the lungs, work that has spanned the
past 35 years of his career. Ward's successful linkage of experimental pathology
with the scientific basis of pulmonary and critical care medicine has broadened
the understanding of lung biology in the medical field.
Ward has served as president of the U.S. and Canadian Academy of Pathology,
the American Board of Pathology, and the American Society of Investigative
Pathology, and currently serves as chair of the National Research Council Institute
for Laboratory Animal Research. He is a lifetime trustee of the American Board
of Pathology, a lifetime national associate of the National Academies of Science,
and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Ward served as interim dean of
the Medical School from 1982 to 1985.
Three Medical School Faculty Members Elected to the Institute of Medicine
The prestigious Institute of Medicine announced in October its newly elected
members for 2003, including three new members from the University of Michigan
Medical School. William A. Barsan, M.D., Robert
Bartlett (M.D. 1963), and Timothy
R.B. Johnson, M.D. (Residency 1979), bring to 22 the number of U-M Medical
School members of the Institute, one of the highest honors in the fields of
medicine and health.
Barsan, professor and chair of Emergency Medicine, was instrumental in the
evolution of emergency medicine from a section of surgery to an academic department
in 1999. Under his guidance, the department quickly became regarded as a national
leader in emergency medicine research. Barsan has also played a significant
role in developing emergency treatments for stroke. He joined the U-M Medical
School in 1992.
Professor of surgery, chief of the Critical Care Division and director of
Surgical Intensive Care, Bartlett is a pioneer in the development of extracorporeal
membrane oxygenation and has influenced the successful worldwide growth of
ECMO technology. His work helped establish the Extracorporeal Life Support
Organization in 1989, an international consortium of health care professionals
and scientists dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel therapies
for support of failing organ systems. Bartlett has been a member of the Medical
School faculty since 1980.
Johnson, the Bates Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children and chair
of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has positioned the department
and the Women's Health Program in the top tier of academic, clinical and research
programs, not only in this country but worldwide. A tireless advocate for the
development of effective women's health programs, Johnson joined the Medical
School as chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1993.
The Institute of Medicine is the medical organization of the National Academy
of Sciences, and its members are elected based upon distinctive contributions
to health through biomedical or social sciences research or leadership in the
health professions.
Ouida Award and Lecture Commemorate World Trade Center Victim
Fitzgerald |
Kate Dimond Fitzgerald, M.D., received
the first Todd Ouida Clinical Scholar Award on September 24 at the inaugural
Todd Ouida Lecture on Childhood Anxiety and Depression. Fitzgerald, a senior
resident whose research focuses on child and adolescent psychiatry, will use
the award to support her research on childhood obsessive compulsive disorders.
The lecture, delivered by Karen Dineen Wagner, M.D., Ph.D., vice chair of the
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, was entitled "Major
Depression and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: The Need to Detect and
Treat Early."
The award and lecture honor the memory of Todd Ouida, who suffered from severe
anxiety as a child. He was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center
on September 11, 2001. Ouida was a 1998 graduate of the U-M College of Literature,
Science, and the Arts. The Todd Ouida Award and Lecture were established by
a gift from Ouida's parents, Herb and Andrea Ouida of River Edge, New Jersey.
Greg Hanna, M.D. (Residency 1984), associate professor and director of
the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Kate Dimond Fitzgerald;
John Greden, professor and chair of Psychiatry and executive director of
the U-M Depression Center; Andrea Ouida; Herb Ouida and Karen Dineen Wagner
Photos: Paul Jaronski |
Former Chair of Biological Chemistry Halvor Christensen Dies at 88
Halvor Niels Christensen, Ph.D., professor emeritus and former chair of the
Department of Biological Chemistry, died after several weeks of illness in
La Jolla, California, on October 2, one day after his birthday. A distinguished
leader and educator, Christensen was internationally recognized for his work
in the area of amino acid transport in physiological and pathological conditions.
After completing his doctoral studies at Harvard University in 1940, Christensen
held many distinguished positions, including director of the Department of
Research Chemistry at Children's Medical Center in Boston, and professor and
chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition at Tufts University.
He served as chair of the U-M Department of Biological Chemistry from 1956
until 1970; his leadership helped the department achieve its current stature.
He continued his research and teaching for another 16 years after stepping
down as chair, retiring in 1986. Christensen and his wife, Mary, then moved
to La Jolla, where he served as an adjunct professor in pediatrics at the University
of California in San Diego from 1989 to 1999.
His wife preceded Christensen in death in June 2003. They are survived by
three children, Hugh and Carl Christensen and Karen Christensen Gray, as well
as two grandchildren.
-JP
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