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Enthusiasm and Gratitude Mark Celebration
of Faculty Achievements
Three President’s Scholars and more than 100 other faculty recognized at Honors Convocation
Three faculty members who are enthusiastic about their work and grateful for the support and opportunities to do that work received the highest faculty awards of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston during the Nov. 2 Faculty Honors Convocation.
Posing with one of their President’s Scholar
certificates are, from left, Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D.;
Ponnada A. Narayana, Ph.D.; and Henry W. Strobel,
Ph.D. Photo by John Everett
UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D., presented the President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Research to Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., director and chief executive officer of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, and Ponnada A. Narayana, Ph.D., professor of diagnostic and interventional imaging. He presented the President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching to Henry W. Strobel, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. All three hold appointments in the UT Medical School at Houston and the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
In addition, more than 100 faculty members were recognized for national and international awards in research, education and service.
“Our focus today is on our faculty awardees. This is a time to celebrate their accomplishments,” Willerson said.
Excellence in Research –Murad
After 40-plus years of research and winning the Nobel Prize, Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., is as excited about research as he was as a senior in college.
A research elective in the Department of Biology and Anatomy at DePauw University was so exciting that he decided to go into the M.D./Ph.D. program at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the first such programs in the country. “I’ve been fortunate, with all the things I’ve done, to have been with exciting people who’ve influenced my career,” said Murad, who holds the John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Chair in Medicine and Physiology.
“I’ve been fortunate to have worked in research, fortunate to work with these people on exciting problems that have captured a lot of research support along the way, and to a very supportive wife and family.”
In medical research, it may take months or years to find an answer, he said, “But when that experiment happens, that ‘Eureka!’ moment that you’ve discovered something that is very important and you’re the only one in the world who has an answer to that problem, it’s exhilarating.”
Murad recalled his parents’ disappointment when he went into medical research instead of practicing medicine in his hometown. He told them, “You know, if I’m really lucky, perhaps my research can help a lot more people than what I could do by going home and taking care of a couple of thousand patients.
“I can honestly tell you that I think my research has influenced health care for many people, and I hope that my current and future research is going to help even more.”
Excellence in Research – Narayana
“Ever since I joined the Medical School – any accomplishment I have had could not have happened without the help and support of colleagues and family,” said Ponnada A. Narayana, Ph.D., who is director of magnetic resonance research.
“In the field of modern biomedical research, one cannot be a successful investigator and teacher without help and strong collaboration from a team of investigators. Although the team has too many members to name them all, I thank each of you,” he said.
Narayana acknowledged Jerry S. Wolinsky, M.D., interim dean of the Medical School, as “a trusted collaborator for more than 20 years. I learned a lot from him,” Narayana said. With Wolinsky he is developing non-invasive techniques to map the progression of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Narayana recalled some of the highlights and low points from his work at the Medical School. For example, after building a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner from scratch, he was able to compete successfully for shared instrumentation grants and acquire a new, stronger MRI.
“Then we had Allison,” Narayana said, referring to the 2001 tropical storm that left 10 million gallons of water in its wake. The scanner was severely damaged by the flood.
With funding from the National Institutes of Health, he was able to replace the scanner with a new one that is “guaranteed to be state of the art.”
Excellence in Education – Strobel
Ever the master teacher, Henry W. Strobel, Ph.D., told two stories about “our students who recognized that what we do here and the way we do it is something to imitate.”
The first was about a student who had become a faculty member at a noted institution. When one of his students misdiagnosed an EKG, he “turned this error into an occasion for learning,” said Strobel, who also is associate dean for faculty affairs at the Medical School. “He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t yell at the student. What he sent this student away with was the wherewithal to learn.”
In the second story, an estranged son was called home to say his last goodbyes to his dying father. “When he arrived at the hospital, he was furious. He was so intent on saving the life of his father that he began to scream at everyone,” Strobel said. “One of our students, John, looked at him and said, ‘Would you like to see your father?'
The son’s anger disappeared. So John took the son into the ICU, closed the curtain and said, ‘Now hold your father’s hand and talk to him. He’s in a coma, but we’re never sure how much people really can hear. I’ll wait outside.’
“When the son came out, he said, ‘I talked to Dad. He squeezed my hand. I know he heard me.’
“John was our student, and I’m proud to be a part of an institution where we can learn from our students the lessons that we have been paid to teach. We celebrate being able to teach.”
By Ina Fried, Institutional Advancement