Kudos

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Awards and Honors

L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president for academic affairs, Health Science Center (HSC), received the 2005 George T. Caldwell, M.D., Distinguished Service Award Jan. 22 at the annual meeting of the Texas Society of Pathologists in Austin. The society's most prestigious award, it is bestowed upon a medical scientist for service and dedication in the field of pathology. At the Medical School (MS) and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), Buja is holder of the Distinguished Chair in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the H.Wayne Hightower Distinguished Professor in the Medical Sciences.

Herbert L. Fred, M.D., professor of internal medicine, MS, was named the 2004 Donald Church Balfour Visiting Professor for the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. During his Dec. 13-15 visit to the Mayo Clinic, he gave a series of presentations: "What's Your Eye-Q?", "Drawbacks and Limitations of CT: A Plea for Circumspection," "50 Years of Bedside Diagnoses: Pictures of Memorable Cases," and "The Chest Film: An Internist's Best Friend." He also met with members and guests of the Division of General Internal Medicine, with the Infectious Diseases staff, and with residents and fellows. The Balfour Professorship was named for an internationally renowned surgeon and medical educator whose career at Mayo spanned 40 years.

Millicent Goldschmidt, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, has received a certificate of lifetime achievement from the Texas Branch-American Society for Microbiology in recognition of distinguished service to the field and to the national and state microbiology societies. The Texas Branch will select a microbiologist annually to give the Goldschmidt Lecture.

Deanna M. Hoelscher, Ph.D., director, Human Nutrition Center, and associate professor of behavioral sciences and nutrition, School of Public Health (SPH), has been invited to participate on an Institute of Medicine panel to establish a research agenda for childhood obesity. She is a member of the basic research group.

Guy Clifton, M.D., holder of the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery, MS; Michael McKinney, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer, HSC; and Guy Parcel, Ph.D., dean, SPH, were appointed Jan. 10 to a new public health care council, which will oversee and attempt to coordinate operations at the Harris County Hospital District, the county Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority and the county public health department. The council also will study whether the city and county public health departments can merge some or all operations. Its recommendations then would go before Commissioners Court, which appointed the members.

Austin G. Stack, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, MS, was admitted to Fellowship of the American Society of Nephrology in January. He also was first author on a paper presented by H. T. Nguyen, Ph.D., statistician, Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, MS, at the American Heart Association Scientific Meeting in Hypertension and Kidney Disease in Chicago. The paper on "Association of Reduced Kidney Function with Prevalent Coronary Artery Disease in the U.S. Population: The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)" received considerable interest from the news media because it is one of the first studies to describe the prevalence of coronary disease in patients with chronic kidney disease in the U.S. population.

Faculty members in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, MS, have been appointed to editorial positions on the journal Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the offi- cial journal of the College of American Pathologists. Published in print and on line, the journal has a worldwide readership.

L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president for academic affairs, named to the journal's executive advisory board.

Dani S. Zander, M.D., professor and vice chair of pathology, director of anatomic pathology and holder of the Harvey S. Rosenberg Chair in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, named associate editor and section editor of the Pulmonary Pathology section.

Amitava Dasgupta, Ph.D., professor, named section editor of the Clinical Chemistry section.

Elizabeth Hartwell, M.D., associate professor and director of clinical pathology, named section editor of the Transfusion Medicine section.

Nghia Nguyen, M.D., associate professor, named section editor of the Coagulation section.

Named special section editor for selected cases were assistant professors Rhonda Ghorbani, M.D.; Jing Liu, M.D., Ph.D.; Dwight Oliver, M.D.; Zhenhong Qu, M.D., Ph.D., and Dongfeng Tan, M.D.

Presentations

Paula N. O'Neill, Ed.D., professor of diagnostic sciences and associate dean for educational research and professional development, Dental Branch (DB), was invited to give two keynote presentations, "Setting the Stage for Diversity and Cultural Competency" and "The Importance of Faculty Development," in January at the University of Louisville (Ky.) School of Dentistry. She was also an invited speaker in November at the American Academy of Periodontology's 90th Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., where she presented "Mentoring Residents About Career Choices in Academics."

Publications

Peter Christie, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, and post-doctoral fellow Eric Cascales, Ph.D., published "Agrobacterium VirB10, an ATP Energy Sensor Required for Type IV Secretion" in the Dec. 7 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Danielle Garsin, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, authored an invited article in the Perspectives section of the Dec. 24 issue of Science titled "Peptide Signals Sense and Destroy Target Cells."

Raouf Hanna, D.D.S, clinical assistant professor and director of undergraduate periodontics, DB, published "Treatment of Intrabony Defects with Bovine-Derived Xenograft Alone and in Combination with Platelet-Rich Plasma: A Randomized Clinical Trial" in the December issue of the Journal of Periodontology. Coauthors in the Department of Periodontics are: Pedro Trejo, D.D.S, clinical assistant professor; and Robin Weltman, D.D.S., clinical assistant professor and director of the graduate periodontics program. In the same issue, Trejo and Weltman published "Favorable Periodontal Regenerative Outcomes from Teeth with Presurgical Mobility: A Retrospective Study."

Hideki Innan, Ph.D., assistant professor of biostatistics, SPH, and post-doctoral fellow Lizhi Gao, Ph.D., co-authored "Very Low Gene Duplication Rate in the Yeast Genome" in the Nov. 19 edition of Science.

Pedro Ruiz, M.D., professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, MS, published the fourth edition of his textbook Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, publishers) in January. The textbook has become one of the most highly regarded and widely used texts in the field of addiction studies in the United States and abroad.

Gwen Sherwood, Ph.D., executive associate dean, School of Nursing, is lead author of Chapter 3, "Doctoral Education for Transformational Leadership in a Global Context," in the book Doctoral Education in Nursing: International Perspectives, published by Routledge in 2005.