Huda Akil, Ph.D., who is the Gardner C. Quarton Collegiate Professor of Neurosciences in Psychiatry, the Distinguished University Professor of Neurosciences and co-director of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, was awarded the Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. The alliance presents five awards annually to recognize top scientists for outstanding advances in brain science and improved patient psychiatric treatment. Akil has made significant contributions to the understanding of the neurobiology of emotions, including pain, anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology has selected Laurence Boxer, M.D., who is the Henry and Mala Dorfman Family Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, to receive the 2008 Distinguished Career Award. The award honors outstanding service and significant scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of blood diseases and cancer in children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics honored Arnold G. Coran, M.D., professor emeritus of surgery, with the 2007 Arnold M. Salzberg Mentorship Award which recognizes pediatric surgeons who have distinguished themselves as mentors of pediatric surgical trainees. Coran is past-president of the Association of Pediatric Surgery Training Program Directors, a founding member of the Society for Pediatric Trauma, and past chair of the academy’s Section on Surgery executive committee.

The board of directors of the American Academy of Pediatrics has appointed Steven M. Donn, M.D., professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, chair of its Committee on Medical Liability and Risk Management. The academy, with 60,000 members, is committed to optimal physical, mental and social well-being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Donn also was appointed to the Working Group on Prematurity by the World Association of Perinatal Medicine, which brings together groups and individuals to promote the science of perinatal medicine for the benefit of the public.

The Society of Uroradiology has awarded its Gold Medal to N. Reed Dunnick, M.D., the Fred Jenner Hodges Professor and chair of radiology. The Gold Medal is the highest honor the society bestows upon its membership. Dunnick was recognized for his scientific contributions to genitourinary tract radiology, his many teaching activities and his service to radiology. He is a trustee of the American Board of Radiology for the Genitourinary Tract and a past-president of the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Association of University Radiologists and the Academy of Radiology Research.

David R. Engelke, Ph.D., professor of biological chemistry, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The honor recognizes Engelke’s contributions to understanding the synthesis and processing of small RNAs and how these processes are spatially coordinated in nuclei. AAAS fellows are chosen by their peers. Founded in 1848, the association is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Carmen R. Green, M.D. (Residency 1992), associate professor of anesthesiology, director of the Pain Research Division and director of the Health Disparities Research Program in the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, was appointed to a four-year term as a member of the Institute of Medicine Board on Health Care Services. The board identifies and monitors high-priority policy issues and provides guidance on the conduct of studies and other projects. Green also was elected to serve on the Scientific Program Committee of the International Association for the Study of Pain, the world’s largest pain society comprised of almost 7,000 members from more than 100 countries.

Terence A. Joiner, M.D. (Residency 1985) assistant professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, was selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics for the Local Hero in Community Pediatrics Award for 2007. The award recognizes pediatricians who are leaders through action and advocacy for children in their local communities. Joiner was nominated for the extensive work he has done for the underserved populations in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The American College of Emergency Physicians recently awarded Terry Kowalenko, M.D., the National Emergency Medicine Faculty Teaching Award for 2007. The award honors outstanding educators in emergency medicine and recognizes superior teaching activities, including didactic lectures, clinical instruction and development of innovative educational programs. Kowalenko, an associate professor of emergency medicine, has been involved in resident and medical student education since completing his residency in 1991. He also is a member of ACEP’s Federal Government Affairs Committee.

Mark J. Lowell, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine and medical director of Survival Flight, was recognized as a Hero of Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The recognition, which is part of ACEP’s 40th anniversary, honors emergency physicians who have made significant contributions to emergency medicine, their communities and their patients. ACEP is a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine with more than 25,000 members.

The 2008 Harland Winfield Mossman Award, which recognizes remarkable discoveries in stem cell biology, was recently won by Sean Morrison, Ph.D., the Henry Sewall Professor of Medicine, assistant professor of internal medicine and of cell and developmental biology, and director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology. Morrison’s lab has identified a number of new mechanisms by which stem cells regulate self-renewing divisions, the process stem cells use to perpetuate themselves throughout life.

Robert J. Wessells, Ph.D., clinical lecturer in internal medicine, is a recipient of a new “surprise” award which provides financial support toward his research in age-related deterioration of cardiac function. He was one of 25 scientists in the nation selected to receive an unsolicited Glenn Foundation Award for Research in the Biological Mechanisms of Aging. Currently, Wessells’ laboratory is examining the role of diet on long-term cardiac performance during aging. The Glenn Foundation initiated the award to recognize and support basic research on the biological mechanisms of aging. No applications or unsolicited nominations for the annual award are accepted. The awards were announced in August 2007 as a surprise to each of the recipients.

Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Addiction Research Center, was presented with an honorary diploma marking his election to honorary membership in the Polish Psychiatrists Association at the first annual meeting of the Polish Society on Addiction Research. The Polish Psychiatrists Association also unanimously elected Zucker to the Polish Society of Psychiatrists Hall of Fame.

Legislation Increases Organ Transplant Pool

Nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a donor organ, including 72,000 awaiting a kidney transplant. Each year, approximately 3,800 people die while waiting for a kidney transplant.

Robert M. Merion, M.D., professor of surgery and clinical transplant director of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, is one of a handful of advocates who worked for more than a year to get the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) amended in a manner that will increase the number of organs available for transplant. In December 2007, Congress approved the paired organ donation legislation amending NOTA, and President Bush signed the legislation shortly after.

As Michigan Senator Carl Levin stated in his floor remarks, paired organ donation results in donor-recipient matching that would not otherwise occur: “In the process of paired organ donation, a donor who is willing to give an organ to a family member or friend, but is biologically incompatible, donates to another patient, who also has an incompatible donor. By cross-matching two or more incompatible living donor recipient pairs, more patients can receive organs and more donors can give an organ.”

Merion, who serves as secretary of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, says Levin made poignant reference to the Michigan transplant team members lost in the June 2007 Survival Flight plane crash, and that the legislation is not only a part of the University’s healing process from that tragedy, but also a fitting tribute to those who perished.