Applied Physics Laboratory
Ned Brokloff of the Force Projection Department has been named a 2014 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus by Penn State University's College of Engineering.
Deborah Chen of the Information Technology Services Department has joined the board of directors of the Howard County Arts Council.
Tom Krimigis, Space Department head emeritus, has received the 2013 Niki ("Victory") Award from the Athens Information Technology Center of Excellence for Research and Education in Greece in recognition of his pioneering contributions to science, space physics, and exploration.
Michael Ryschkewitsch, formerly chief engineer at NASA, has been selected to lead the Space Sector at APL. Ryschkewitsch was most recently responsible for the technical readiness of all NASA programs. He previously served as the deputy director for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and director of Goddard's Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate. Ryschkewitsch has earned numerous awards, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, the Robert Baumann Award for contributions to mission success, and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Leadership Award. He earned his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Florida and his PhD in physics from Duke University.
Bayview Medical Center
Neeraj Sunderrajan Naval, an assistant professor of neurology, anesthesiology, and critical care medicine and director of the Neurosciences Critical Care Unit, has been named the 2013 Physician Champion of the Year by the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland. Naval was praised for his knowledge of the process for organ, eye, and tissue donations and his compassionate and caring treatment of patients that proactively helps LLF obtain donations.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Darrell J. Gaskin, an associate professor in Health Policy and Management and deputy director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions, has been elected to the National Academy of State Health Policy's Center for Health Policy Development board of directors. CHPD is responsible for the legal and fiduciary oversight of the academy.
William J. Ward Jr., an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and former director of the Master of Health Administration program, received the President's Medal for Outstanding Leadership and Service to the Health Profession from Mount St. Mary's University. In addition, he was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of Upper Chesapeake Health, Harford Memorial Hospital, and the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center.
Centers and Affiliates
Stacie Stender, technical leader in TB/HIV at Jhpiego, has been named vice chair of the Coordinating Committee for Scientific Activities within the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease. Stender will assume the position in the fall, during the organization's annual conference in Barcelona; the role will last for the next three conferences.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Jason Kalirai, the James Webb Space Telescope Project Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an associate researcher at the Center for Astrophysical Sciences at Johns Hopkins, was co-recipient of the 2013 Outstanding Young Scientist Award given by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center. He shared the award, presented Nov. 20, with Claire E. Cramer of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The OYS award program was established in 1959 to recognize Maryland residents who have distinguished themselves early in their careers for accomplishments in science. Recipients are chosen by members of the Maryland Academy of Sciences' Scientific Advisory Council, which provides expertise and content review to the Maryland Science Center. Kalirai's research in the study of stellar populations has yielded important insights into the ages of stars in the Milky Way. These efforts increase students' scientific interest and keep the public aware of the scientific advances achieved through the funding of academic research.
Peabody Institute
Paula Boggs, a Peabody National Advisory Council member as well as a member of the university's board of trustees, has been tapped by President Barack Obama to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues.
Yiyi Cui, a master's degree computer music student of McGregor Boyle's, received the Excellence Prize in the Musicacoustica-Beijing Competition. Her audio/video work Beijing Impression, which combines Eastern and Western musical elements to convey the different sides of Beijing, placed in the top 10 in the Multimedia Music of Electroacoustic Music and Video category.
Voice faculty artist Denyce Graves was presented with the Marian Anderson Living Legacy Award at the National Women's History Museum's third annual de Pizan Honors ceremony, held in October. The award recognizes women from the past and present who have shaped history. Among the other honorees at the event were Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, actress Phylicia Rashad, and filmmaker Ken Burns.
A film on Peabody faculty artist Michael Hersch, The Sudden Pianist, was chosen by The New York Times' music critics for their holiday gift suggestion list and also was included by The Baltimore Sun's Chris Kaltenbach on an arts and culture gifts list encouraging the purchase of works of local artists, writers, and musicians. Also on the Sun's list were CDs by Peabody faculty members Manuel Barrueco and Marin Alsop.
Composition faculty member Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize–winning opera Silent Night was performed by the Minnesota Opera and broadcast by PBS on Dec. 13. The opera recounts the story of a Christmastime ceasefire during World War I.
Senior Alexandra Razskazoff, a soprano in the studio of Stanley Cornett, was a winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, held Dec. 7 in Philadelphia. She will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Auditions to be held in February at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C.
Dan Trahey, a Preparatory faculty member, and Preparatory student Asia Palmer recently accepted a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award on behalf of OrchKids. The award was presented by first lady Michelle Obama to Trahey, OrchKids' artistic director, and Palmer, an eighth-grader who has participated in OrchKids since 2008, in the East Room of the White House.
School of Medicine
Barbara Cook, medical director of the Access Partnership—a Johns Hopkins program that helps uninsured and underinsured patients receive specialty health care at the Johns Hopkins Hospital—and former president of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, has received the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American College of Physicians.
Lisa Cooper, a professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities, has received the American College of Physicians' James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine.
Robert Findling has been named the inaugural recipient of the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professorship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Findling, who joined the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in December 2012, focuses his research on children and adolescents suffering from serious psychiatric conditions, with a particular emphasis on psychopharmacology.
David Kern, a professor emeritus of medicine, former co-director of General Internal Medicine at Bayview, and director of the curriculum development programs of the Johns Hopkins Faculty Development Program for Clinician-Educators, has received a mastership in internal medicine from the American College of Physicians. Kern also has been named president-elect of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.
Brenessa Lindeman, a research resident in general surgery, has received the Association of Surgical Education's 2014 Linnea Hauge Promising Educational Scholar Award. The award is given annually to a resident or fellow who shows promise as a future leader and scholar in surgical education.
Deborah Persaud, an associate professor in Pediatrics, has been named by the science journal Nature as one of 2013's 10 People Who Mattered. Persaud, a virologist, was recognized for her work on what the journal's editors say is "the strongest evidence yet that infants with HIV can be cured."
Kenneth Shermock, an assistant professor in the schools of Medicine and Public Health and director of the Center for Medication Quality and Outcomes at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster. The program is funded by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and promotes linkages between U.S. scholars and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions overseas. The program awards grants to faculty and professionals to engage in short-term, collaborative projects at eligible institutions in more than 140 countries. Shermock is planning to conduct a project related to medication safety and effectiveness.
Andrea Zachary, a professor and director of the Division of Immunogenetics and Transplantation Immunology, has received the highest honor bestowed by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, the Rose Payne Distinguished Scientist Award. Created in 1984 and named for a pioneer in the field, the award recognizes Zachary's lifetime of achievements and major scientific contributions to histocompatibility and immunogenetics.
School of Nursing
Deborah Finnell, an associate professor in Acute and Chronic Care, is lead editor of the newly published edition of Addictions Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice. Providing evidence-based approaches to substance use screening and intervention, Finnell and Christine Savage, chair of the Department of Community-Public Health and a contributor to the book, developed a model to frame primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention interventions for nursing. The book is co-published by the International Nurses Society on Addictions and the American Nurses Association.
Jeanne Murphy, a doctoral candidate, was selected as a June 2014 Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. The postdoctoral fellowship will provide opportunities for cutting-edge research on prevention, drugs, biologics, medical devices, and more in line with her dissertation research on cervical cancer prevention in women living with HIV.
Brigit VanGraafeiland has been appointed assistant professor on the practice track in the Department of Acute and Chronic Care. VanGraafeiland has been an educator for 14 years, and her scholarship focuses on improving outcomes for children in out-of-home placement and using simulation and standardized patients to advance critical thinking skills.
Kathleen White, an associate professor in Acute and Chronic Care, is co-chairing the 2013–14 American Nurses Association Nursing Administration Scope and Standards Revision Workgroup. She will lead the group in updating measurement criteria and evaluating the applicability of nursing administration standards specified in the 2009 edition of Nursing Administration: Scope and Standards of Practice.
Whiting School of Engineering
Rene Vidal, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and director of the Vision Dynamics and Learning Lab in the Center for Imaging Science, has been named a fellow of the IEEE Computer Society. The grade of fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession. Vidal is also a faculty member in the Institute for Computational Medicine and the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.
James West, a research professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Election to NAI Fellows is a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. West is co-inventor of the electret microphone technology developed for telephones and used today in almost 90 percent of the more than 2 billion microphones produced each year.
