Kudos

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Awards and Honors

William Margolin, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Medical School (MS), was awarded the Highest Commendation by the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) for service to graduate education in June 2007. Only two percent of the GSBS faculty receive this award.

Kevin Morano, Ph.D., associate professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, MS, was invited to participate at the Gordon Research Conference: Stress Proteins in Growth, Development and Disease, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, in August 2007. He presented “The Hsp70/Hsp110 partnership in yeast.” Morano also was invited to present this lecture at the World Congress on Stress: Molecules to Man, in Budapest, Hungary in August.

L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president, Office of Academic Affairs, was appointed to the honorific title of Distinguished Teaching Professor recommended by University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., and approved by Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., UT System executive vice chancellor for health affairs, at UT System on Sept. 10, 2007.

Stephen Daiger, Ph.D., the Thomas Stull Matney Professor of Environmental and Genetic Sciences in the Human Genetics Center at The University of Texas School of Public Health and GSBS, has been appointed to the executive board of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. The executive board meets regularly with the board of trustees of the foundation to review and recommend research projects, and to plan research strategy. Daiger also is chair of the foundation’s Genetics Committee. The Foundation Fighting Blindness supports research to find cures for diseases of the retina which lead to blindness in children and young adults. During the past year, the foundation raised over $30 million for this purpose and over $250 million since its reception in 1971.

Miguel DaCunha, Ph.D., professor of Integrative Nursing Care, Women and Childbearing Families Division and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston, received the World AIDS Day Vision Award.

The honor was presented at the 25th anniversary luncheon in November 2007 of the AIDS Foundation Houston. DaCunha is one of 25 vision award recipients and was recognized for his early interest in HIV education, risk-reduction and more recently his work on the Mayor’s Task Force on HIV and minorities.

Publications

Pedro Ruiz, M.D., professor and interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, MS, delivered the keynote lecture on the topic of “Psychiatry in the XXI Century: Current Perspectives” during the 46th Annual Congress of the Taiwanese Society of Psychiatry held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in November 2007.

Danielle Garsin, Ph.D., assistant professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, MS and GSBS, was invited to participate at the sixth Cold Spring Harbor meeting on Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Response, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., in September 2007. She presented “The Role of Insulin Signaling in C. elegans Innate Immune Response.” The meeting focused on interdisciplinary approaches to study infectious disease in animal and plant hosts, integrating the disciplines of molecular microbiology, eukaryotic cell biology, immunology, and genomics.