Kudos

Send information for consideration for Kudos to Jenna C. Taylor. Please include complete titles and doctoral degrees.

Awards and Honors

Sally Henin Awad, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine, Medical School (MS), has been appointed a co-chair at the American College of Emergency Physicians. Awad, medical director of the forensic nursing program at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, will help lead the college’s adult and adolescent Section of Forensic Medicine. She is assisting with the development of appropriate training and resources for emergency physicians who must know how to gather and preserve evidence from patients who are victims of crimes, such as sexual assault, domestic violence or elder abuse.

C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., director and CEO, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, received the Medical Statesman Award from Health Access Texas at a May 23 luncheon at La Columbe d’Or in Houston. A non-profit organization devoted to helping the uninsured and underinsured, Health Access Texas honored Caskey for his efforts to improve health care through genetic research.

Shen-An Hwang, Ph.D., received second place in the Young Investigator research competition at the 10th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Baltimore, Md. She was invited to give an oral presentation of her work on the final day of the meeting May 2. Hwang is a post-doctoral fellow, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, MS, working with Jeffrey K. Actor, Ph.D., associate professor, pathology, and Medical Immunology Course Director, MS and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). The title of her work was “Lactoferrin Adjuvant Enhances BCG Vaccine and Promotes Dendritic Cell Stimulation of T-Cells.” Marian Kruzel, Ph.D., visiting professor of integrative biology and pharmacology, MS, was also a co-author on the abstract.

Parsa Mirhaji, M.D., director, Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Informatics Research, School of Health Information Sciences, received a recognition award for SAPPHIRE from the Government Chief Technology Officers Council April 25 at the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice second special conference in Reston, Va. SAPPHIRE (Situational Awareness and Preparedness for Public Health Incidences Using Reasoning
Engines) is a surveillance system designed to detect outbreaks of disease and acts of bioterrorism faster than conventional monitoring methods. It was recognized for “demonstrating a groundbreaking and high-impact research with practical and real world applications, beyond health care and life sciences.”

In the same meeting, a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) representative named SAPPHIRE as one of 10 projects internationally to watch regarding the adoption of Semantic Web technology and its implications in different sectors of government and industry. The project also was listed as one of the significant activities in Scientific American’s featured article regarding the adoption of the Semantic Web in health care and life sciences.

The video “Living After Stroke: Conversations with Couples” won a platinum award at the 40th annual WorldFest-Houston Film Festival. Sharon Ostwald, Ph.D., professor and holder of the Isla Carroll Turner Chair in Gerontological Nursing, School of Nursing (SON), was executive producer for the film, which grew out of the CAReS (Committed to Assisting with Recovery of Stroke) Project, a National Institutes of Health research project on stroke survivors and spousal caregivers. Co-producer of the half-hour documentary was Thomas R. Cole, Ph.D., director of the John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Health, Humanities and the Human Spirit, MS.

John R. Potts, M.D., professor and program director, Department of Surgery, MS, has been elected a director of the American Board of Surgery. Potts, assistant dean for graduate medical education, will serve a six-year term beginning July 1. The American Board of Surgery is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1937 to certify surgeons who have completed residency training and an examination process. As a director, Potts will participate in the administration of a comprehensive certification process for general, pediatric, vascular, surgical critical care and hand surgeons.

Presentations

Herbert L. Fred, M.D., professor of internal medicine, MS, presented the invited keynote speech May 18 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Society Supporting Leadership in Internal Medicine. The speech was a tribute to the late Maxwell Myer Wintrobe, M.D., first chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Wintrobe, who was instrumental in establishing hematology as a medical subspecialty, was a mentor of Dr. Fred and others who were present for the meeting. Collaborating on the presentation was Hendrik A. van Dijk, former director of Graphic Communications Group, MS.

Sandra K. Hanneman, Ph.D., the Jerold B. Katz Distinguished Professor for Nursing Research and associate dean for research, SON, participated in a distinguished panel of nurse scientists May 21 at the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses National Teaching Institute in Atlanta, Ga. Panel members discussed how their science has influenced care of critically ill patients.

Publications

Marianne T. Marcus, Ed.D., the John P. McGovern Professor in Addictions Nursing and director, Center for Substance Abuse Education, Prevention and Research, SON, is lead author of “Behavioral Therapies Trials: A Case Example,” published in the May/June 2007 issue of Nursing Research. Co-authors from the Medical School included Joy Schmitz, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Gerard Moeller, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and GSBS; and Paul Swank, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics-Children’s Learning Institute. Co-authors from the Center for Nursing Research, SON, were Stanley Cron, instructor; Kian Granmayeh, research coordinator; and Deidra Carroll, research assistant and School of Public Health student.

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