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.
Academic Centers and Affiliates
The JHU Press Journals Marketing Department has won five honors in the 2012 MarCom Awards. The 2012 and 2013 Journals Catalog each received Platinum honors, the highest award given, in the Brochure/Catalog category. The new In Other Words video series won Gold in the Web Video/Educational Series category. A 2012 brochure for the Association for the Study of Higher Education won an honorable mention in the Design (Print)/Brochure category, and the redesigned German Studies Association website won a similar honor in the Website/Association category. The department, led by Lisa Klose, includes Ladzer Blumenfeld, Janet Gilbert, Brian Shea, and Keli Strickland.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Josef Coresh has been named the inaugural recipient of the George W. Comstock Professorship in Epidemiology. Coresh, a professor, holds joint appointments in the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He also serves as director of both the Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Training Program and the George W. Comstock Center for Public Health Research and Prevention. Coresh has led prominent investigations on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the United States. His main research objective is to decrease the burden of cardiovascular and kidney disease by developing the scientific basis for behavioral and pharmacologic interventions.
Karen Davis, former chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, is returning to Johns Hopkins after serving two decades as president of the Commonwealth Fund. Davis has been appointed the second Eugene and Mildred Lipitz Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and director of the Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care. She assumes her new position on Jan. 1. A national leader in health policy, Davis is frequently called on to provide guidance to individual members of Congress and the administration on issues related to health care spending, delivery systems for the uninsured and the chronically ill, the Medicare program, and the impact of a high-performing health care system.
Michael Klag, dean of the school, has been named the 2013 recipient of the American College of Physicians' James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine. The award is named in honor of the late former governor, regent, and president of the national medical organization. Klag, who will receive the award during the American College of Physicians' Convocation Ceremony on April 11, 2013, in San Francisco, was selected for his work and research in the prevention of cardiovascular and kidney disease. His work has led to a number of pioneering studies of kidney disease epidemiology, including the first study to assess the incidence of end-stage renal disease and to identify high blood pressure as a risk factor for the development of kidney failure. His robust body of research is credited with expanding our understanding of how characteristics in young adulthood influence health and disease later in life. The American College of Physicians, a professional organization for internists, is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the U.S. Its members include internal medicine sub-specialists, and medical students, residents, and fellows. Klag has been a member since 1997.
Carey Business School
Lindsay Thompson, an associate professor, was elected to represent the United States on the 14-member executive committee of the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics. She also was one of four new members elected to the board of directors of the Maryland Humanities Council. Thompson, who has a doctorate in classics from Johns Hopkins, specializes in the role of character and human values in business, society, and corporate culture.
Homewood Campus
Johns Hopkins Hillel has been honored with the Philip H. Cohen and Susan Rudd Cohen Campus of Excellence Award, which was presented by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life during the 2012 Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, held in November. The Campus of Excellence Awards honor Hillels and their achievements in empowering student leadership, engagement, and education. One award is given to a campus with a small Jewish population and another to a campus with a large one; Johns Hopkins received the former and Penn State the latter.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
The E-Strategy and Web Services Team and the Marketing Team in the Office of Marketing and Communications have received a half-dozen industry awards for outstanding achievements. The two teams received the Gold Award for Best Integrated Marketing Campaign from Health Care Internet Conference for their effort announcing the opening last spring of the two new JHM clinical towers. The Johns Hopkins Hospital's website redesign and mobile wayfinding created by the E-Strategy and Web Services Team received the gold Innovators Award at the Healthcare Internet Conference organized by Greystone.net, an Atlanta-based provider of health care-oriented Internet, Web, intranet, portal, social media, and mobile-related services and solutions. Both efforts also received the Best-in-Class Award from Krames StayWell, a Yardley, Pa.-based health care engagement company. The Health Care Internet Conference, organized by Strategic Health Care, a Rye, N.Y.-based communications, marketing, and business development organization, gave silver awards as Best Interactive Site to hopkinsmedicine.org and Best Social Networking sites to all hopkinsmedicine.org primary social media platforms. The Washington, D.C.-based Health Information Resources Center gave a gold Web Health Award to JHM Twitter, a silver award to JHM Facebook, and a bronze award to JHH's Mobile website.
Johns Hopkins Medicine International
Vinhloc Nguyen has been named vice president and chief financial officer. He previously served as director of treasury, financial analysis, and risk management at Learning Tree International, overseeing worldwide corporate financial functions for the $180 million information technology and management training company.
Dominic Seraphin, former head of planning and marketing for Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, has been named managing director for South Asia in Johns Hopkins Medicine International's Global Services division. Seraphin joined Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2005 as director of business planning in the Office of Strategic Planning and Market Research. He became director of marketing and planning at Bayview in 2007. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he served as vice president for business development at St. Joseph Medical Center and as assistant vice president of marketing for MedStar Health.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Jane Guyer, the George Armstrong Kelly Professor of Anthropology, has been given the prestigious Distinguished Africanist Award by the African Studies Association. The award is given to scholars who have a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in their respective field of African studies and service to the Africanist community. Guyer was given the award in December at the ASA's annual conference. ASA representatives described Guyer's work as "superbly original" and said that "its impact extends well beyond anthropology." She was lauded for her ethnographic studies of economic life in West and Central Africa that illustrate the creativity and resilience of African men and women despite political and economic turmoil. Guyer was also recognized for the interdisciplinary influence her research has had, and her commitment to institution building. She was described as "demonstrating an enduring commitment to helping and supporting successive generations of African and Africanist scholars."
Multidisciplinary
Two Johns Hopkins faculty members have been honored by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center as "next generation" leaders. Brice Menard, an astrophysicist in Physics and Astronomy, received the 2012 Outstanding Young Scientist Award, and Jordan Green, a researcher in Biomedical Engineering, was recognized as the 2012 Outstanding Young Engineer. The awards recognize Maryland residents 35 years of age or younger who have distinguished themselves early in their careers for noteworthy scientific accomplishments. Menard has made significant contributions to a number of questions in cosmology; his recent discovery of the vast stores of interstellar dust in intergalactic space has implications for understanding the evolution of galaxies and for observations of almost all types of intergalactic objects. Green has integrated engineering, biology, chemistry, and materials science to create synthetic biodegradable nanoparticles that can safely and effectively deliver nucleic acids into human cells; this transformative technology has wide-ranging applications, from regenerative medicine to treating diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Peabody Institute
David Hildebrand, a faculty member in Musicology, has released a double CD, Music of the War of 1812. The lead musicologist in his brother Mark Hildebrand's documentary Anthem, which aired on Maryland Public Television on Dec. 19, he also was interviewed for a segment about the Star-Spangled Banner on the PBS show History Detectives. The episode will be broadcast at 8 p.m. on Jan. 8.
Graduate Performance Diploma candidate Maria Victoria Pedrero, a cello student of Amit Peled's, was awarded first prize in the American Fine Arts Festival Golden Strings of America International String Competition. She made her solo debut in Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall on Nov. 4 and received scholarship funds toward participation in the 2013 AFAF Summer Music Courses in Europe.
Markand Thakar, co-director of the Conservatory's Graduate Conducting Program and music director of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, presented the fourth winter conducting workshop with BCO on Dec. 15 to 19 at Goucher College. Twenty-one conductors from around the world participated. In July, he will lead a 10-day conducting seminar with BCO on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus.
Doctor of Musical Arts candidate Eunkyung Yoon, a student of Yong Hi Moon's, won second prize in the second Asia-Pacific International F. Chopin Piano Competition, held in Daegu, South Korea. She and the other prizewinners performed at the Oct. 26 gala concert at the Keimyung Art Center.
SAIS
Eliot Cohen, director of the Strategic Studies Program, has been named to Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Top Global Thinkers 2012 list. He was cited for "writing the GOP's foreign-policy playbook in 2012."
The Global Fund for Children, an NGO founded by visiting scholar Maya Ajmera, has been selected by the Financial Times to be its 2012 Seasonal Appeal charity partner. Ajmera, also a SAIS International Development Program professorial lecturer and GFC board member, launched the NGO in 1993 to invest in grassroots organizations that ensure that the most disadvantaged children in their communities are safe, healthy, and educated.
School of Medicine
Benjamin Carson, professor and director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, has been appointed president of the board of the East Baltimore Community School Inc., effective Dec. 1. The board manages the operation of the Elmer A. Henderson School: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School, formerly known as the East Baltimore Community School.
David Feller-Kopman, an associate professor and director of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology, has received the American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology's 2012 Geoffrey McLennan Memorial Award for Advances in Interventional Pulmonology. In addition, Johns Hopkins Hospital's Interventional Cardiology group that Feller-Kopman directs was named a center of excellence in the field.
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.
Atul Nakhasi, a second-year medical student, has been chosen to be the national chair of the 50,000-member Medical Student Section of the American Medical Association. In this position, Nakhasi serves as the spokesman for the AMA's medical student members and is their representative to other segments of the AMA, as well as to outside organizations.
Lawrence Pakula, associate professor of pediatrics, has received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. An award-winning teacher, pediatrics advocate, and philanthropist, Pakula is co-founder of Pavilion Pediatrics at Green Spring Station and chairman of the board of the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, co-owned by the Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland health systems.
Lillie Shockney, an associate professor and administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center and the 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.
Frederick Wondisford, a professor of pediatrics, has received the American Thyroid Association's 2012 Sidney Ingebar Distinguished Lectureship Award, which recognizes significant contributions to thyroid-related research over many years.
University Administration
Gus Sentementes has joined the Office of Communications as audience engagement manager. He comes to the university from The Baltimore Sun, where he wrote about digital technology and innovation on the paper's popular blog BalTech.
Whiting School of Engineering
Robert Cammarata, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society. Cammarata was selected for this honor for his "pioneering contributions to thermodynamics and mechanics of surfaces, thin films, and nanomaterials, and to the synthesis, processing, and mechanical behavior of nanocomposite thin films."
Ben Schafer, chair of Civil Engineering, has been named to the 2012 Power List by Structural Engineer magazine, which annually honors individuals who are "dedicated to advancing the profession and developing solutions to some of the world's toughest problems." Schafer was recognized for his leadership in research and education and for his contributions to the profession through his roles in professional organizations, including the American Iron and Steel Institute, the American Institute of Steel Construction, the Cold-Formed Steel Institute, and the Structural Stability Research Council. ?
