Akhtar	Narendra	Gracey

Amana Akhtar and Derek Narendra, members of the Class of 2009, are among 42 medical and dental
students selected to participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program. They will live for a year on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, conducting research in NIH laboratories. Medical students Lia Gracey (Class of 2010) and Kyle Viani (Class of 2009) were among 69 students named HHMI Medical Fellows, receiving support for a year of full-time research at an institution of their choice. Students will pursue a diverse range of research projects in fields such as immunology, neuroscience, cell and molecular biology, developmental biology and genetics. The Research Scholars and Medical Fellows programs are part of a larger effort by HHMI to integrate basic research and clinical experience.

Amy Alderman, M.D. (Residency 2004), an assistant professor in the Section of Plastic Surgery, has been selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Physician Faculty Scholars Program Class of 2010. Intended to strengthen the leadership and academic productivity of junior medical school faculty who are dedicated to improving health and health care, the program provides support for three years of research, as well as national and local mentorship.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation will present Carol Bradford (M.D. 1986, Residency 1992), professor of otolaryngology, with its Distinguished Service Award at the foundation’s annual meeting in September. The award recognizes volunteer contributions to the academy and its foundation. In 2006, Bradford was elected into the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum, an international association with members from 50 countries.

Sally A. Camper, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Human Genetics, the James V. Neel Collegiate Professor of Human Genetics and a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, received the 2007 Roy O. Greep Award from the Endocrine Society for outstanding contributions to research in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is an international body with 13,000 members from more than 85 countries.

William F. Chandler (M.D. 1971, Residency 1977), professor of internal medicine and of neurology, was recently appointed the Richard C. Schneider Professor of Neurosurgery for a five-year term. Chandler also serves as co-director of the Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Center.

The American Association for Cancer Research recently selected the research team of Arul Chinnaiyan (M.D. and Ph.D. 1999), the S.P. Hicks Collegiate Professor of Pathology and professor of urology, for its inaugural Team Science Award. Chinnaiyan’s team won the award for its landmark discovery that prostate cancer harbors gene fusions which may cause the disease.

Marci Lesperance (M.D. 1988, Residency 1994), associate professor of otolaryngology, recently was honored by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation for her work with the foundation, and was appointed chair of the academy’s Pediatric Otolaryngology Education Advisory Committee, which provides continuing medical education and standards of care for pediatric otolaryngologists in the U.S. and internationally.

Howard Markel (M.D. 1986), Ph.D., the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and director of the Center for the History of Medicine, has been named one of eight contributing writers to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Markel’s charge is to write frequent essays exploring the interactions of medicine, society and culture.

The American Thoracic Society recently honored Marc Peters-Golden, M.D., with an award for scientific accomplishment, recognizing his career-long commitment and contributions to basic and clinical research. Peters-Golden, who studies how lipid molecules are involved in inflammation and other body processes, is a professor of internal medicine and director of the Fellowship Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., the Harold F. Falls Collegiate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and professor of human genetics, received the Board of Directors Award for Outstanding Research Achievement from the Foundation Fighting Blindness. The award recognizes his discovery of the gene CEP290, associated with retinal degeneration in mice.

Gilman

Tate

The Institute of Medicine selected Denise G. Tate, Ph.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, to serve on a committee to evaluate medical disability compensation for veterans. Also serving on the committee was Sid Gilman, M.D., former chair of Neurology and current director of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. The committee’s report was prepared at the request of the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission and called for updating the system for evaluating veterans and their disabilities, giving special focus to conditions such as traumatic brain injury.

Yilmaz

Tomlins

Scott Tomlins, a Ph.D. candidate in pathology, and Omer Yilmaz, a Ph.D. candidate in cellular and molecular biology, are among 12 graduate students from North America and Asia chosen to receive the 2007 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Nominations were solicited internationally. Winners were selected based on the quality, originality and significance of their work.

Bina Valsangkar, a medical student in the Class of 2009, has been awarded a prestigious Reynolds Foundation Fellowship which will enable her to pursue a master’s degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. The fellowship seeks to accelerate the preparation of a new generation of public leaders who can bring the insights of entrepreneurship and management to bear on social problems.

The Michigan College of Emergency Physicians’ Board of Directors has named Edward Walton, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine, as the 2007 Emergency Physician of the Year. The award recognizes clinicians of unusual merit who are outstanding emergency physician role models, maintain high professional standards and clinical orientation, and are active in community service and education. 

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