Kudos

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Awards and Honors

Ivone Bruno won first place among graduate student posters March 15 at the Eighth Annual Mini Symposium of the Program in Human and Molecular Genetics of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). Other winners were Magalie Leduc, second, and Xiaoming Liu, third. The symposium was conducted at the School of Public Health (SPH) and at UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Guy Clifton, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School (MS), was inducted March 26 into the Academy of Distinguished Former Students in Texas A&M University’s College of Science. The academy recognizes graduates who have brought honor to their profession through outstanding leadership in mathematics, the sciences and medicine. Clifton, a 1971 graduate, is holder of the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery and founder of Save Our ERs, a coalition of Houston businesses and health professionals dedicated to finding solutions for the growing trauma and emergency services crisis in the state. He also directs Mission Connect, which focuses on spinal cord injury and nerve regeneration research. As chairman of the Houston-Galveston Area Council Emergency/Trauma Care Policy Council, Clifton discussed trauma care problems April 1 at the Texas Municipal League Region 14 spring meeting at the Hilton Houston Westchase.

Herbert L. DuPont, M.D., received an honorary doctorate April 24 from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. DuPont is a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the School of Public Health (SPH), the Mary W. Kelsey Professor of Medical Sciences and a faculty member in GSBS. The award honors DuPont for his research achievements in the epidemiology, etiology and therapy of infectious gastrointestinal diseases. For more than two decades DuPont has worked with University of Zurich Professor Robert Steffen, M.D., director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Traveller’s Health, to study the causes, sources, treatment and prevention of diarrhea in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Angela Ethier, instructor in nursing for target populations, School of Nursing (SON), and a Doctor of Science in Nursing (D.S.N.) student, has been awarded a $30,000 doctoral scholarship in cancer nursing from the American Cancer Society. The two-year scholarship will support her dissertation research on exploring parents’ memories of their child’s death-related sensory experiences as a dimension of resolving grief. Ethier’s sponsors are Patricia R. Liehr, Ph.D., professor of nursing systems, SON, and Marilyn Hockenberry, Ph.D., clinical associate professor, SON, and director, Center for Clinical Research at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Anil D. Kulkarni, Ph.D., professor of surgery, MS and GSBS, was named international editor of the journal of the Japanese Society for Medical Use of Functional Foods, published in both English and Japanese. He also is the author of “Evidence Strategy for Functional Foods” that appeared in the November issue of the journal.

Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, MS, received the Thomas J.Walsh Clinical Mycology Award at the March 24-26 international meeting “Focus on Fungal Infections” in New Orleans. Ostrosky-Zeichner received the award for his work on a clinical prediction rule for invasive candidiasis in the intensive care setting. Candidemia is the fourth most common bloodstream infection in the United States. In an upcoming prophylaxis trial the prediction rule Ostrosky-Zeichner and his collaborators created will be used to identify patients at high risk for this infection. Ostrosky-Zeichner also is associate program director, Infectious Diseases Fellowship, and medical director for epidemiology, Hermann Hospital.

Mary Pat Rapp, assistant professor of nursing systems and technology, SON, and a D.S.N. student, has been selected as a 2004-2006 John A. Hartford Foundation Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholar. This two-year predoctoral research fellowship comes with an award of $70,931 for her dissertation research on skin failure in elderly hospice patients. Rapp’s mentor in the D.S.N. program is Nancy Bergstrom, Ph.D., the Theodore J. and Mary E. Trumble Professor in Aging Research.

Rick A.Wetsel, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for Developmental Biology and professor of molecular medicine in the Research Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases, Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases and GSBS, has accepted an invitation to serve as a member of the Allergy and Immunology Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health, ending June 30, 2007. Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors. Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations on these applications, and survey the status of research in their fields of science.

Presentations

R. Palmer Beasley, M.D., dean, SPH, and Ashbel Smith Professor at the health science center, presented the 13th annual Dorothy M. Horstmann Lecture March 31 at the Yale School of Medicine. Titled "Towards the Eradication of Hepatitis B," the lecture was part of the Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds series, co-sponsored by the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

This endowed lecture honors Dorothy M. Horstmann, M.D., the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, for her distinguished contributions to science, education and public health, particularly regarding poliomyelitis and rubella.

During his 30-year career as an epidemiologist, Beasley has worked on a variety of epidemiological problems, including hepatitis B, HIV/AIDS, plague, rubella, rheumatoid arthritis and Waardenberg syndrome. An adviser on hepatitis control to the World Health Organization (WHO), Beasley was a co founder of the International Task Force on Hepatitis B Immunization. He wrote the WHO policy guidelines on the hepatitis B virus immunization.

Monique Lambert, instructor in neurosurgery,MS, presented “It’s Storming: Understanding the Catecholamine Response and Its Potentially Harmful Effects on the Heart and Lungs after an Acute Neurological Injury” April 20 at the national meeting of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses in San Antonio. She is a nurse practitioner for the Department of Neurosurgery - Critical Care.

Karen Mitchell, manager, research training, moderated a session on “Staying Compliant: Implementing an Automated IRB System” March 29 at the annual meeting of the Texas Chapter of the Society of Research Administrators. Barbara Legate, research administration and information technology coordinator, was a panelist in the session. The chapter met at the office of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in Austin. Catherine Moore, director of the Office of Sponsored Projects, is vice president- elect of the chapter, and Mitchell is a past president.

Kristin K. Ownby, Ph.D., and Linda S. Dune, Ph.D., assistant professors in SON, presented their study “Exploring the Mystery: Forming a Substantive Theory for Peripheral Neuropathic Pain in AIDS Patients” at the Oncology Nursing Society Congress in April. The study was funded through the Houston Endowment collaborative nursing research program that was awarded to the UT, Texas Woman’s University and Prairie View A&M University schools of nursing in previous years.

Publications

Frank L. Cole, Ph.D., professor of nursing, interim assistant dean and chair, Department of Acute and Continuing Care, SON, and Robert Vogler, D.S.N., associate professor of acute and continuing care, SON, were authors of “The Acute, Nontraumatic Scrotum: Assessment, Diagnosis, and Management” in the February issue of The Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Cole also is author of “Practical Guidance for the New Graduate Advanced Practice Nurse: Regulations/Certification” in the January issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing.