Applied Physics Laboratory
Christina M. Hammock, of the Space Science Instrumentation Group, was selected by NASA as one of eight new astronaut candidates. Hammock has been serving as station chief of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate and atmospheric observatory in American Samoa and was set to return to APL's Space Department; instead, she will report this month to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for two years of training.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Benjamin Caballero, a professor in the departments of International Health and Maternal and Child Health, and also a professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, has been named director of the Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity, which brings together leading scientists from across the university and around the world in the fight against childhood obesity and related noncommunicable disease epidemics through systems science research. Caballero is active in key scientific committees advising the U.S. government on issues of diet and health, including the Institute of Medicine's Dietary Reference Intakes Committee, Expert Panel on Macronutrient Requirements, and Food and Nutrition Board. He previously was a member of the Food and Drug Administrationís Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee and Scientific Advisory Board. In 1990, he founded the Johns Hopkins Center for Human Nutrition, which helps to harness the nutrition expertise from all quarters of the university.
Fang Han, a doctoral candidate in Biostatistics, has been awarded a 2013 Global Google PhD Fellowship. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students from around the world who are pursuing work in computer science, related disciplines, or promising research areas.
Hadi Kharrazi, an assistant professor in Health Policy and Management and assistant director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT, was a recipient of this year's Faculty Innovation Fund award for using Maryland's health information exchange to develop and evaluate an inter-provider hospital readmission risk detection and notification system.
Keshia Pollack, an associate professor in Health Policy and Management, has been appointed to an Institute of Medicine and National Research Council committee to develop a framework for assessing the health, environmental, and social effects of the food system.
Donald Steinwachs, a professor in Health Policy and Management, received AcademyHealthís Distinguished Investigator Award at the organization's Annual Research Meeting, held recently in Baltimore. The award honors individuals who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to the field of health services research, and are leaders and role models in the field. Steinwachs was recognized for his distinguished tenure at the Bloomberg School, where he has served as a teacher, guide, and mentor for students and young faculty while pursuing a well-regarded research career. He was instrumental in the creation of AcademyHealth and its success as an influential voice for health services research and health policy.
Roland Thorpe Jr., an associate scientist in Health Policy and Management and the Hopkins Center for Disparities Solutions, will sit on the American Psychological Association's Working Group on Health Disparities in Boys and Men. The group will develop strategies to better address health needs of underrepresented boys and men in the United States.
William J. Ward, an associate professor in Health Policy and Management and former director of the Master of Health Administration program, has been elected to serve on the board of directors of Venture, Upper Chesapeake Health, Harford Memorial Hospital, and Upper Chesapeake Medical Center.
Carey Business School
Adam Seth Litwin, an assistant professor, is an inaugural winner of the Emerging Scholar Award in Employee Participation and Ownership. The $1,500 award is presented by the Academy of Management, the oldest and largest scholarly management association in the world, and is sponsored by the Foundation for Enterprise Development, a La Jolla, Calif.-based organization that promotes employee ownership and broad-based participation. Litwin, an expert in strategic human resources management and employment relations, was honored for his body of research on employee involvement, much of it within health care organizations.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Eric Bass, a professor of medicine in the School of Medicine with a joint appointment in Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Albert Wu, also a professor in Health Policy and Management, have been named co-directors of the Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership program.
Johns Hopkins Medicine International
Lindsay Rothstein has been named director of Marketing and Communications. She will lead the office's integrated marketing, communications, digital, and brand strategies.
Multidisciplinary
Allix Sanders, Chemistry; Sravanti Kusuma, Biomedical Engineering; and Allison Chambliss, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, are among the 73 top graduate student researchers from the United States who were chosen to attend the 63rd Annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, from June 30 to July 5. The meeting, dedicated this year to chemistry, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Mars Inc., the National Science Foundation, and ORAU. Thirty-five Nobel laureates gave lectures and participated in question-and-answer sessions.
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Wind Ensemble, under the direction of faculty artist Harlan D. Parker, released its CD Johan de Meij: The Symphonies under the Naxos label.
School of Medicine
Daniel Nyhan, a professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, has been named interim director of the department. He will serve in that capacity until a director is chosen to succeed John Ulatowski, who stepped down from his position July 1. Ulatowski will continue in a full-time role as vice president and executive medical director of Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
Nemanja Rodic and Yu Yu, both postdoctoral fellows in the Department of Pathology, have received the HERA Women's Cancer Foundation's 2013 OSB Grants to pursue "outside the boxâ"ideas and study new directions in the origins and treatment of ovarian cancer, which ranks fifth as the cause of cancer deaths in women. Applications for the grants, which total $30,000, are by invitation only. Rodic will study potential genetic activators for ovarian cancer, and Yu will research the potential of targeting spleen tyrosine kinase as an effective strategy against ovarian cancer.
Dean F. Wong, a nuclear medicine specialist and professor in the schools of Medicine and Public Health and Carey Business School, has received the prestigious 2013 Paul C. Aebersold Award for his contributions over the past 30 years in applying basic science to the field of nuclear medicine. Wong, an expert in brain imaging, was presented with the award by officials of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at the society's annual meeting, held in June in Vancouver, Canada. Among Wong's accomplishments noted by the society are his oversight of the first dopamine PET receptor imaging in humans; his leadership of the first study suggesting elevations of so-called D2 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia, and how dopamine is transported in and out of cells; his leadership as principal investigator on one of the first studies to document cocaine craving, as measured by nerve cell dopamine release; and his research teamís demonstration of elevated dopamine release in Tourette's syndrome.
The Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has been selected to receive the Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis. This award recognizes the unit's groundbreaking behavior analytic research, its world renown in the application of behavior-analytic and operant principles to the analysis and treatment of drug addictions in humans, and its critical role in the development of contingency management as a treatment for substance use disorders.
The JHU Alumni Association has honored 11 faculty members whose "distinguished careers and unselfish contributions to society have added luster and prestige to the university and its School of Medicine," according to association officials. The awards and honorees, selected from among nominations by the Alumni Association and the schoolís faculty, were as follows: Knowledge for the World Award, to Solomon H. Snyder, Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Psychiatry; Heritage Award, to Carol W. Greider, the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and a Nobel laureate; and Richard T. Johnson, a Distinguished Service Professor; Distinguished Alumna/us Award, to David B. Hellmann, the Aliki Perroti Professor of Medicine and vice dean and director of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; Ralph H. Hruban, a professor of pathology and oncology; and Redonda G. Miller, an associate professor in General Internal Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at the Johns Hopkins Hospital; Outstanding Recent Graduate Award, to Crystal C. Watkins, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences' Division of Molecular Psychiatry; and the School of Medicine Award to Charles W. Cummings, a Distinguished Service Professor in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery; George J. Dover, a professor and director of the Department of Pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center; Eileen P.G. "Patti" Vining, a professor of neurology and pediatrics, director of Pediatric Neurology, and director of the John M. Freeman Pediatric Epilepsy Center; and Stephen V. Desiderio, a professor of molecular biology and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and the Immunobiology Program in the Institute for Cell Engineering.
School of Nursing
Jason Farley, an assistant professor in Community-Public Health, has been named president-elect of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. He will serve a two-year term beginning in November, followed by a two-year term as president.
Kerry Peterson, a doctoral candidate, received a $5,000 grant from the American Psychiatric Nurses Foundation to go toward her dissertation research on preventing dating violence on college campuses.
Laura Taylor, an assistant professor in Acute and Chronic Care, was elected to the board of directors of the International Transplant Nursing Society.
Tener Veenema, an assistant professor in Community-Public Health, will receive the 2013 Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross at an awards ceremony in October in recognition of her courage and devotion to victims of armed conflict or natural disaster.
University Administration
Patrick Murray, director of State Affairs in the Office of Government and Community Affairs, has been named to The Daily Record's 2013 VIP List. According to the publication, the list "recognizes Maryland leaders based on their professional accomplishments, a commitment to inspiring change in their community, and their tremendous accomplishments achieved before or by age 40."
