Cheers is a monthly listing of honors and awards received by faculty, staff, and students plus recent appointments and promotions. Contributions must be submitted in writing and be accompanied by a phone number.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Fang Han and Yingying Wei, doctoral candidates in Biostatistics, have been recognized with Student Travel Awards to present papers at the 2013 annual meeting of the International Biometrics Society/Eastern North American Region, to be held in March in Orlando, Fla. Han's winning paper was "Principal Component Analysis on High Dimensional Non-Gaussian Dependent Data," and Wei's was "iASeq: Integrative Analysis of Allele-Specificity of Protein-DNA Interactions in Multiple ChIP-seq Datasets."
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Stefanie DeLuca, an associate professor in Sociology, has joined the Century Foundation as a fellow. One of America's oldest think tanks, the Century Foundation has more than 20 policy experts on issues ranging from social insurance programs and health care to economic and foreign policy. DeLuca's current research examines the sociology of education, urban sociology, neighborhoods, and social inequality.
Multidisciplinary
Charles Limb, an associate professor in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in the School of Medicine and also a faculty member at the Peabody Conservatory, and Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an adjunct professor of physics and astronomy in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, have been tapped to serve as Science Advisory Team for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Limb and Livio will work with Marin Alsop, the orchestra's music director, and Carol Bogash, its vice president for education and community engagement, to develop educational science-themed music programs.
Peabody Institute
Faculty artist Michael Formanek, jazz bass, has received his second consecutive five-star "masterpiece" review in Downbeat (January 2013 issue) for his CD Small Places.
Junior Alexandra Razskazoff, soprano, was among the winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Philadelphia District, in December. In the Mid-Atlantic Regional Competition held Jan. 18 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., she was one of two singers who received an encouragement award of $2,500.
SAIS
David Calleo, the Dean Acheson Professor, was recently honored with an academic conference on the future of Europe and trans-Atlantic relations. The event, held at the SAIS Bologna Center, brought together 26 scholars from a dozen countries. In 1968, Calleo founded the SAIS European Studies Program, now considered the pre-eminent American graduate program for the study of contemporary Europe, and directed the program for more than 40 years, through May 2012. In 2001 he was named a University Professor.
Svante Cornell, research director of the Central Asia–Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, and a co-director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, has received the Caspian Scholar of the Year award from the Caspian Strategy Institute. The award honors a scholar who has conducted distinctively valuable research regarding strategic issues of the Caspian region.
Lori Cwalina has been appointed associate dean for development and alumni relations. Before joining Johns Hopkins, she was assistant vice president for health system development at the University of Virginia.
Melissa Trotta has been named to the newly created role of associate dean for executive education and strategic initiatives. Trotta came to Johns Hopkins from Harvard University, where she was director of Admissions at the Kennedy School and associate director of Academic Affairs at the Business School. She previously worked at Georgetown University as associate dean for executive degree programs for the McDonough School of Business.
School of Medicine
Patrick Byrne, an associate professor and director of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, has been named by Johns Hopkins Medicine International as medical director of Tokyo Midtown Medical Center. He will provide guidance and support for clinical improvement initiatives there.
Ayse Gurses, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, has received an Early Career Investigator Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences Foundation. Gurses, a member of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, was given the 2012 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Award for her research on improving patient safety in cardiac operating rooms, transitions of care/handoffs, care coordination, compliance of providers with evidence-based guidelines, and working conditions for nurses.
Brooks Jackson, a professor and director of the Department of Pathology, has been appointed chairman of the Food and Drug Administration's Blood Products Committee in the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Isaac Kinde, a cancer researcher and MD/PhD candidate, was named by Forbes as one of today's 30 brightest stars under 30 in the Science & Healthcare category. About the 29-year-old, the editors said, "Kinde is developing techniques to improve the accuracy of DNA sequencing technology and demonstrating that it might be used to detect cancers arising from the colon, pancreas, and ovaries in a simple, noninvasive manner. Already, several patents have been applied for, and he's been published in Science Translational Medicine, Nature, and other journals." Kinde was a Meyerhoff Scholar at UMBC and at Johns Hopkins works in the laboratories of Luis Diaz, Nickolas Papadopoulos, Kenneth Kinzler, and Bert Vogelstein.
Landon S. King, the David Marine Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and vice dean for research, has assumed additional duties as executive vice dean. In his new position, King will assist Dean Paul Rothman in overseeing operations and program development. King received his medical degree in 1989 from Vanderbilt University and came to Johns Hopkins that year as an intern in the Osler Medical Service. As a postdoctoral fellow and later, after joining the faculty in 1997, as an assistant professor, he undertook important studies of water channels in the lung with 2003 Nobel laureate Peter Agre.
Jonathan Powell, an associate professor of oncology and pharmacology, has been awarded an inaugural two-year $100,000 grant from the Harrington Discovery Institute to pursue his research on a novel therapy for treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Powell is among the first recipients of grants bestowed as part of the Harrington Project for Discovery and Development, a first-of-its-kind $250 million initiative to accelerate breakthrough discoveries in medicine.
Roger Reeves, a professor of physiology and a member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, has received a 2012 Sisley-Jérôme Lejeune International Award for Translational Research in Intellectual Disabilities. The award from the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune in Paris includes a 20,000 euro cash prize. Reeves studies Down syndrome and possible medications for improving cognition and direction sensing in people with it.
Lillie Shockney, an associate professor and administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center and Johns Hopkins Cancer Survivorship Programs, has received the 2012 Inspiration Award from the Tigerlily Foundation, a Reston, Va.–based organization dedicated to educating, empowering, providing support to, and advocating on behalf of women ages 15 to 40 with breast cancer.
School of Nursing
Fannie Gaston-Johansson, the Elsie M. Lawler Professor in the Department of Acute and Chronic Care, has been designated a University Distinguished Professor. Gaston-Johansson, who holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine's Department of Oncology, is known for her work on the aftereffects of breast cancer treatment on African-American women and for her research on end-of-life and pain-management issues.
Nancy Hodgson, an assistant professor in Acute and Chronic Care, has been named to the board of directors of Roland Park Place, a continuing care retirement community.
Pamela Jeffries, associate dean for academic affairs and a professor in the Department of Acute and Chronic Care, has been named president-elect of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Jeffries will become president in 2014, just the second nurse to hold the position. Jeffries is nationally known for her work in developing simulations and online teaching and learning, and is sought out for her expertise in experiential learning, innovative teaching strategies, new pedagogies, and the delivery of content using technology in nursing education. The Society for Simulation in Healthcare was established in 2004 to represent educators and researchers who use simulation techniques for education, testing, and research.
Casey Shillam, an assistant professor in Acute and Chronic Care, has received a $20,000 New Nursing Faculty Fellowship grant from the Maryland Higher Education Commission. The fellowship was established to recognize the skill and willingness of new faculty such as Shillam, who joined Johns Hopkins last spring, to begin addressing the shortage of bedside nurses.
Julie Stanik-Hutt, an associate professor in Acute and Chronic Care, is serving a second term as the Maryland State representative for the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and is legislative committee head of the board of directors of the Nurse Practitioners Association of Maryland.
University and Health System
Johns Hopkins has been recognized by the national organization World at Work–Alliance for Work-Life Progress with the Work Life Seal of Distinction Award. Johns Hopkins is among a select group of 54 private and public organizations from across the country recognized for demonstrating leadership in work-life effectiveness. The university and health system's portfolio of workplace programs and practices was evaluated on its breadth, depth, and proficiency.
Whiting School of Engineering
Hynek Hermansky, the Julian S. Smith Professor in Electrical Engineering and director of the Center for Language and Speech Processing, will be awarded the 2013 International Speech Communication Association Medal for Scientific Achievement. Hermansky, who was named a fellow of the ISCA in 2011, will be the 20th recipient of this honor, the highest bestowed by the association. Fred Jelinek, founding director of the Center for Language and Speech Processing, received the honor in 1999. Since the award was first given in 1989, JHU and MIT are now the only institutions to receive the award twice.
Thao "Vicky" Nguyen, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Rebecca Schulman, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, are each a recipient of a 2013 NSF Career Award. This prestigious honor, formally known as a Faculty Early Career Development Award, recognizes junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research in their organizations. Nguyen is studying how mechanical forces affect soft tissue within the eye, and her award, $400,000 over five years, will support research that may shed light on diseases and conditions such as tendon injuries, cardiac fibrosis, and glaucoma. Schulman's funding, also $400,000 over five years, will support her group's development of a new method for assembling interconnects between nanoscale device terminals. Her work holds promise for developing nanoscale circuits that could pave the way for faster computers, devices to manipulate light at the nanoscale, and extremely sensitive molecular detection systems.
