Kudos

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Awards and Honors

Rajiv Agarwal, M.D., chief clinical fellow, internal medicine-cardiovascular diseases, Medical School (MS), has been named winner of the Young Investigator’s Research Award from the North American Society of Cardiac Imaging. At the society’s national meeting in Florida in November, he gave an oral presentation on his research.

Hector Balcazar, Ph.D., regional dean, School of Public Health (SPH) El Paso Regional Campus, has been appointed to the American Journal of Public Health editorial board. Balcazar was nominated by the Latino Caucus of the American Public Health Association.

Michael Braun, M.D., assistant professor in the Research Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) and a faculty member in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), was elected a member of the Society for Pediatric Research. Election to the society represents peer recognition of research achievements in pediatrics.

Frank L. Cole, Ph.D., professor of nursing, assistant dean and chair of the Department of Acute and Continuing Care, School of Nursing (SON), has been elected to a one-year term on the board of directors of the newly created Academy of Emergency Nursing. He also was selected to receive the UT Austin Graduate School Outstanding Alumnus Award for 2005-2006 at the doctoral degree level. He will be honored at the convocation for doctoral degree candidates and the annual awards banquet in the spring.

Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases, MS, was appointed by the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) to serve as a member of the Advisory Panel on Healthcare-Associated Infections. The panel will advise TDSHS on the best approach to the recently legislated public reporting of healthcare-associated infections.

Guy S. Parcel, Ph.D., dean, holder of the M. David Low Chair in Public Health, and the John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion, received the 2005 Distinguished Career Award of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in December at the annual APHA meeting in Philadelphia.

Presentations

Several health science center speakers were on the program at the National Health Forum in November in Houston: Carlos R. Hamilton Jr., M.D., executive vice president for external affairs, and president, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, “Diabetes”; Adelaide Hebert, M.D., professor of dermatology, MS, “Advances in the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis”; Scott Lillibridge, M.D., director, Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, SPH, “Preparing Our Nation for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats”; Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., Nobel Laureate, director of IMM and GSBS faculty member, “To Characterize, Purify and Reconstitute Regulatory Pathways Using Pharmacological, Biochemical and Molecular Biological Approaches in Research”; James T.Willerson, M.D., president, “Stem Cells and Treatment of Heart Disease in Humans.”

Lillibridge was keynote speaker for “Protecting Our Community from Influenza: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Preparedness,” a day-long conference in November at the Methodist Hospital. S. Ward Casscells, M.D., the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Public Health and vice president for biotechnology, moderated a panel of experts on “A Regional Science Perspective on Preparedness.” The Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness was one of the event sponsors.

Robert Levine, M.D., associate professor of neurosurgery and emergency medicine, MS, and chief, Neurosurgery Critical Care, and director of NTICU, Memorial Hermann Hospital-TMC, represented the American College of Emergency Physicians on the Governor’s Panel for the Texas Initiative on Sepsis in November at the State Capitol in Austin. He also presented several abstracts at the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis in Sydney, Australia, and in November was a keynote speaker for the Mexican Congress of Internal Medicine in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico.

To increase awareness about global child health, Kristy Lillibridge, D.V.M, assistant professor of epidemiology, SPH, spoke Oct. 25 at a Houston Public Television forum, “Feed Your Hungry Mind.” This was part of a nationwide campaign to coincide with a far-reaching multimedia project “Rx Survival: A Global Health Challenge” anchored by a six-part television series, which aired Nov. 1-3 on Houston PBS.

Publications

Nancy Bergstrom, Ph.D., the Theodore J. and Mary E. Trumble Professor in Aging Research and director of the Center on Aging, SON, is co-author of an article on research reflecting improved patient outcomes with increased nursing time for nursing facility residents. The article was published in the November issue of the American Journal of Nursing.

Arlo F.Weltge, M.D., clinical associate professor of emergency medicine, MS, was a special contributor and reviewer of the “2005 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care,” published in the December supplement to Circulation.