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Honors & Other Things |
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May 7, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 32 |
National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame: Mr. Bilsky
The University of Pennsylvania’s Director of Athletics, Steve Bilsky (W’71), was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on April 21, 2013.
The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame & Museum is dedicated to honoring Jewish athletes, coaches, broadcasters yand others who have distinguished themselves in the world of sports. Each year those persons being inducted are honored in a ceremony held at the Suffolk Y JCC in Commack, NY, the home of the Hall of Fame.
Mr. Bilsky, now in his 19th year as Director of Athletics, was a three-time All-Ivy guard and captained a Penn team that was arguably the greatest in program history; in 1970-71, the Quakers went undefeated through the regular season and NCAA Tournament before falling in the East Regional final.
During his tenure, 90 Penn teams have earned conference championships in 22 different sports. Penn has been honored with more than 369 Academic All-Ivy honorees, 34 Ivy League Players of the Year and 133 All-Americans.
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Morris Arboretum: Prestigious Accreditation
The Morris Arboretum was recently named a Level IV Accredited arboretum by The Morton Register of Arboreta, achieving the highest level of recognition available. The Morton Register is a comprehensive list and database of arboreta and other public gardens that have a substantial focus on trees and shrubs.
The Morton Register was created to 1) foster the establishment and professionalism of arboreta; 2) identify arboreta capable of participating or collaborating in certain scientific, collections or conservation activity; and 3) advance the planting and conservation of trees to improve the world. Arboreta are accredited at different levels depending on degrees of development, capacity and professionalism.
Organizations that have been awarded Level IV status have met the highest levels of arboretum standards, including the following:
A scientific and/or conservation staff and capability to collaborate on sophisticated scientific or conservation activities with other arboreta or organizations related to trees.
Institutional capacity, stability, and commitment to hold and safeguard plants of collections or conservation value on behalf of the collective interests of the profession.
Specific participation in collaborative scientific or conservation activities related to trees, such as the North American Plant Collections Consortium or the Global Trees Campaign.
The Morris Arboretum is the only arboretum in the Philadelphia area to receive this level of accreditation.
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Morris Arboretum’s Katsura Tree:
Native to Japan and China, this Pennsylvania State Champion is perhaps the largest Katsura tree in North America, topping 67 feet, and was planted in the early 1900s as part of a Japanese garden. Its huge spreading canopy is simultaneously graceful and powerful, and the wide exposed roots have an equally distinctive character. The leaves start out in spring as a beautiful light pink before turning to light green. In summer the leaves are a bluish green before turning yellowish-apricot in the fall. As the leaves fall and decompose, they give off an odor of caramel or cotton candy.
Photo courtesy the Morris Arboretum. |
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Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology: Dr. Cooper
Dr. Joel D. Cooper,a professor of surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who has made innovative contributions to lung transplantation, will receive the 2013 Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology, an annual award that honors transplantation icon Dr. Thomas E. Starzl.
Dr. Cooper is an internationally recognized surgeon-scientist who has been at the forefront of both experimental and clinical lung transplantation for more than 30 years. His contributions made clinical lung transplantation possible by advancing the understanding of the role of immunosuppression in wound healing and introducing new surgical techniques.
Dr. Cooper initiated a clinical lung transplantation program at Toronto General Hospital in 1983, and his team was the first to achieve reproducible long-term success, which was reported in a landmark article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986. He then went on to direct a series of experiments in the laboratory to devise and perfect the en-bloc double lung transplant technique. The Toronto Group carried out the first successful clinical double lung transplants in 1986 and 1987. Later, Dr. Cooper modified this procedure to a simpler one—bilateral, sequential, single-lung transplantation—that was performed as treatment of cystic fibrosis, emphysema and pulmonary hypertension. While advancing lung transplantation, Dr. Cooper also performed a series of fundamental studies that formed the basis for the lung preservation method currently used worldwide.
The annual Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology is awarded by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Surgery and UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. The award and lectureship were established in 1996 by the Department of Surgery and subsequently endowed by Fujisawa Healthcare Inc. (currently Astellas Pharma Inc.) to honor the distinguished career of Dr. Starzl, whose contributions to organ transplantation and immunology have been recognized around the globe.
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Penn Tree Program: Commemorating 2013 Graduates
On April 24, Morris Arboretum Director of Public Programs Robert Gutowski joined the Class of 2013 at Penn’s College Green to plant a chestnut oak tree and dedicate it as part of the Penn Tree program, a program linking Penn students to their own Morris Arboretum. The Class of 2013 planting ceremony marks the fifth commemoration of this new Penn tradition, where a tree is planted and dedicated on campus in honor of each Penn class.
William Hohns, W’74, who generously funds the Penn Tree Program along with his wife, Kathlene, thinks that “the program is simple, both in its concept and execution; and through the placement of distinctive trees over time, can dramatically influence the appearance of the campus while building pride for each class.”
Every year, the Arboretum, in consultation with Bob Lundgren, the University Landscape Architect, provides students with a selection of three specimen trees. These are voted on by the Class, and their favorite becomes their Penn Tree. By engaging the expertise of the Morris Arboretum staff and the University Landscape Architect for the tree choices and placement, the Class is assured that the urban and other requirements of the Penn campus are carefully considered. Morris Arboretum works closely with the Penn Traditions program to promote the voting process and student participation.
The Class of 2013 tree planting took place in conjunction with the Final Toast. Linking the Penn Tree program to this popular Penn tradition will “maximize student engagement and help weave the Penn Tree program into the fabric of Penn student life,” says Miriam Von Essen, Penn Outreach Coordinator at the Arboretum.
The Class of 2013 voted and selected a chestnut oak as its “Penn Tree”—while small when planted, in time this tree will mature into a stately tree that will provide beauty, shade and cleaner air for future generations of Penn students.
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Junior Investigator Preliminary/Feasibility Grant Program Award
The CTRC (Clinical and Translational Research Center) and ITMAT (Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics) are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 Junior Investigator Preliminary/Feasibility Grant Program (JIPGP) awards. The JIPGP award is intended to support the work of promising junior investigators by providing grant support as well as reduced cost access to the infrastructure and support services of the CTRC.
There were a total of 24 applications from CHOP and HUP, and five have been selected for funding.
Dr. Mona Al Mukaddam, endocrinology, medicine. Is Diabetes associated with higher bone marrow adiposity?
Dr. Lama Chahine, sleep medicine. Implications of REM sleep behavior disorder in Parkinson’s Disease patients.
Dr. Kristin Hudock, allergy, pulmonary and critical care, medicine. Mechanisms of the IL-1 receptor antagonist in the pathogenesis of ARDS.
Dr. Jennifer McGuire, neurology, pediatrics. The neurobiological basis for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders in horizontally-infected adolescents–prevalence, risk factors, and structural analysis.
Dr. David Weber, endocrinology, pediatrics. Longitudinal evaluation of bone density and structure in children and adolescents with incident Type 1 Diabetes.
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The 2013 Newly-Retired Faculty
The following faculty members were accorded emeritus status during the 2012-2013 academic year (unless otherwise noted). Those marked with an asterisk (*) have elected not to use the emeritus title modifier. The year in parentheses is the year that they joined the Penn faculty ranks.
*Dr. Toshio Asakura, Professor A, Pediatrics/PSOM (’69)
Dr. Stanley Baiman, Emeritus Professor, Accounting/Wharton (’92)
Dr. Stanley Baum, Emeritus Professor, Radiology/PSOM (’75)
*Dr. Lange Beverly, Professor C-E, Pediatrics/PSOM (’78)
Dr. Marjorie Bowman, Emerita Professor, FM-Family Medicine/PSOM (’96)
Dr. Seth Braunstein, Emeritus Associate Professor C-E, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism/PSOM (’76)
Dr. Francis Brevart, Associate Professor Emeritus of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Germanic Languages and Literatures/SAS (’81)
Dr. R. Nick Bryan, Emeritus Professor, Radiology/PSOM (’99)
Dr. Arthur Caplan, Emeritus Professor, Medical Ethics/PSOM (’94)
Dr. Peter Conn, Vartan Gregorian Professor Emeritus of English, English/SAS (’69)
Dr. Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Janice and Julian Bers Professor Emerita of the History and Sociology of Science, History and Sociology of Science/SAS (’02)
Dr. Margreta deGrazia, Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor Emerita of the Humanities, English/SAS (’83)
Dr. Marc Dichter, Emeritus Professor, Neurology/PSOM (’86)
Dr. Neil Doherty, Emeritus Professor, Business Economics and Public Policy/Wharton (’86)
Dr. Robert Eisenberg, Emeritus Professor, Rheumatology/PSOM (’96)
Dr. Lois Evans, Emerita Professor, Family and Community Health/SON, (’84)
Dr. Nabil Farhat, Emeritus Professor, Electrical and Systems Engineering/SEAS (’59)
Dr. Steven Galetta, Emeritus Professor C-E, Neurology/PSOM (’88)
Dr. Paul Guyer, Florence R.C. Murray Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, Philosophy/SAS (’83)
*Dr. Barry Hendler, Associate Professor C-E, Oral Surgery/Dental Medicine, (’75)
Dr. Lawrence Hrebiniak, Emeritus Associate Professor, Management/Wharton, (’76)
*Dr. Aravind Joshi, Professor A, Computer and Information Science/SEAS (’61)
Dr. Charles Kahn, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Philosophy/SAS (’65)
*Dr. Henrika Kuklick, Professor of History and Sociology of Science, History and Sociology of Science/SAS (’81)
*Dr. Peter Kuriloff, Professor A, Education/GSE, (’70)
*Dr. Susan Lytle, Professor A, Education/GSE, (’85)
Dr. Richard Markowitz, Emeritus Professor C-E, Radiology/PSOM (’88)
Dr. Richard Miselis, Emeritus Professor, Vet Animal Biology/Veterinary Medicine (’75)
Dr. Stanley Muravchick, Emeritus Professor C-E, Anesthesia/PSOM (’81)
Dr. William Potsic, Emeritus Professor C-E, Otorhinolaryngology/PSOM (’74)
*Professor Witold Rybczynski, Professor A, Architecture/Design (’93)
Dr. Richard Salcido, Emeritus Professor C-E, Rehabilitation Medicine/PSOM (’99)
*Dr. Gillian, Sankoff, Professor of Linguistics, Linguistics/SAS (’79)
Dr. H. Schumacher, Emeritus Professor, Rheumatology/PSOM (’67)
Dr. Joseph Spear, Emeritus Professor, Vet Animal Biology/Veterinary Medicine (’72)
Dr. Wendy Steiner, Richard L. Fisher Professor Emerita of English, English/SAS (’79)
*Dr. Donald Tyler, Associate Professor C-E, Anesthesia/PSOM (99)
Mr. William Tyson, Emeritus Associate Professor, Legal Studies & Business Ethics/Wharton (’82)
Dr. Frank Welsh, Emeritus Professor, Neurosurgery/PSOM (’73)
Dr. Susan Wiegers, Emerita Associate Professor C-E, Cardiovascular Medicine/PSOM (’92)
Dr. Jeffrey Wortman, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clinical Studies-Philadelphia/Veterinary Medicine (’81)
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Class of 2013 Ivy Stone
The Class of 2013 Ivy Stone was designed by Ezekiel S. Sexauer C’13 and will be fabricated from black granite. The 2013 stone will be installed on the ARCH building. The exact installation site will be determined upon completion of the ARCH renovations in December 2013.
Student Awards
Senior Honor Awards
*Althea K. Hottel Award: Ariela R. Cohen, C’13
*Gaylord P. Harnwell Award: Isabel R. Friedman, C’13
*David R. Goddard Award: Pallavi R. Podapati, C’13
*R. Jean Brownlee Award: Lakshmi Sivaguru, C’13
*Spoon Award: Jonathon Youshaei, C’13 W’13
*Bowl Award: Angel A. Contrera, W’13
*Cane Award: Alec G. Miller, E’13 W’13
*Spade Award: Jacob M. Shuster, C’13
Leadership Awards
*Association of Alumnae Fathers’ Trophy: Leslie J. Kovach, C’13
*Class of 1915 Award: Mark J. Rappo, W’13
James Howard Weiss Memorial Award: Joelle H. Shosfy, C’13
Penn Student Agencies Award: Andrew J. Jakubowski, C’13
*Penn Alumni Student Awards of Merit: Deirdre M. Bullard, C’13; Scott B. Dzialo, W’13; Sohaib K. Hashmi, E’13 W’13; Scott J. Lopano, W’13; Elena D. Madan, C’13 W’13
*Sol Feinstone Undergraduate Awards: Alice Xie, C’14; Clarissa P. Palmer, C’14; Mimi Yi Sheng, C’13 W’13
James Brister Society Student Leadership Award: Elizabeth (Lisa) C. Doi, C’13
Association of Latino Alumni Student Leadership Award: Angel A. Contrera, W’13
Black Alumni Society Student Leadership Award: Aya A. Saed, C’13
University of Pennsylvania Asian Alumni Network Student Leadership Award: Michelle Ming-Shih Leong, E’13
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alumni Association Student Leadership Award: Spencer B. Stubbs N’13
Trustees’ Council of Penn Women Leadership Award: Morgan E. Humphrey, W’13
William A. Levi Kite & Key Society Award for Service and Scholarship: Kimberly A. Tai, C’13
Stephen Wise Award: Alexandra Fuchs, C’13; Mohammed Hussain, C’13; Sean Nadel, C’13
*Note: These awards will be presented during the Ivy Day ceremony on May 10.
The other awards are presented at several different ceremonies during Alumni Weekend May 10-13.
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1DocWay Wins First-Ever Wharton Social Venture Business Plan Competition
The Wharton School’s Social Impact and Private Equity/Venture Capital student clubs announced that the student team 1DocWay won the $3,000 Grand Prize of the inaugural Wharton Social Venture Business Plan Competition (http://whartonpevc.com/activities/wsvbpc/).
The prize was awarded at the Social Venture Final Round on April 12, 2013, after finalists delivered pitches before a judging panel of experts in entrepreneurship, venture capital, technology and social impact.
1DocWay is an online platform that helps hospitals expand psychiatry inpatient and outpatient revenue by connecting to underserved and rural patient populations. Its HIPAA-compliant video chat platform transforms any room with a webcam and internet connection into a doctor’s office helping patients access psychiatrists quickly and easily. Rural, elderly and other underserved patients can schedule appointments online, building hospitals’ referral base and reducing the high cost of co-morbidity—or incidence of both chronic physical and mental illnesses.
In the past year, 1DocWay has implemented over 2,000 doctor-patient sessions. In addition, 1DocWay has received recognition as a Wharton Venture Initiation Program selection, and as a winner of Independence Blue Cross’ IBX Game Changers Challenge and the Wharton Venture Award.
The Wharton Social Venture Business Plan Competition was open to both individuals and teams with high-impact, sustainable business ideas that address a pressing global social issue. The competition aimed to promote social impact at Wharton and the broader Penn community by providing opportunities and resources for budding social entrepreneurs and global change-makers.
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IEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award: Dr. Engheta
Dr. Nader Engheta, H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, is the recipient of the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Key Award from the IEEE Philadelphia for “outstanding electrical engineering design, innovation and problem solving.”
The Key Award is given annually to an engineer in the Philadelphia section of IEEE for outstanding technical innovation and technological contributions that have significant practical application. The award emphasizes technical innovation, a significant improvement to the design or application of a system, or patents of clear practical values. Emphasis is placed on tangible technical and technological achievements that demonstrate intellectual, industrial, economical or human benefits.
Dr. Engheta’s research activities span a broad range of areas involving the physics of fields and waves. He is a leading figure in the field of metamaterials, which combines physics, engineering and nanotechnology to bend and manipulate waves in ways that natural materials cannot. He has also published numerous journal papers, book chapters, and conference articles is a Guggenheim Fellow, an IEEE Third Millennium Medallist, a Fellow of American Physical Society, a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America; and has received numerous other awards and distinctions for his scholarly research contributions and teaching activities.
IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence.
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Grand Prix Scientifique: Dr. FitzGerald
Dr. Garret FitzGerald, chairman of the pharmacology department and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the 2013 Grand Prix Scientifique by the Institut de France.
Dr. FitzGerald shares the prize with Dr. Carlo Patrono, chairman of pharmacology at the Catholic University, Rome. The award is based on the recommendation of the International Scientific Council of the Board of Directors of the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation, Paris. The prize will be awarded under the presidency of the Chancellor of the Institut de France and the President of the French Academy of Sciences on June 5, 2013. The Grand Prix Lefoulon-Delalande, valued at 500,000 euros ($650,000) is one of the largest prizes for scientific accomplishment and is considered the world’s most prestigious prize for cardiovascular research.
Dr. FitzGerald and Dr. Patrono share the prize for their development of low-dose aspirin for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Their work used novel approaches to assess the formation of short-lived fats in the body called prostaglandins that play a key role in the development of blood clotting. They discovered how lower doses of aspirin than had been previously used to treat pain and inflammation act on blood cells called platelets to shut down their role in blocking arteries to cause heart attacks and strokes. Low-dose aspirin is now used for this purpose throughout the world and has saved the lives of tens of millions of people.
Aside from his work on aspirin, Dr. FitzGerald was the first to predict and then mechanistically explain the cardiovascular hazards from such nonsteroidal antinflammatory drugs as Vioxx and Celebrex. His laboratory has discovered novel indices of oxidant stress and was the first to describe the molecular clock in the cardiovascular system. Among his awards in the past year have been the Scheele Award from the Swedish Academy of the Pharmaceutical Science and the Lucian Award from McGill University.
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Translational Science Award: Dr. Strom
Dr. Brian L. Strom, the executive vice dean for Institutional Affairs in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and professor of biostatistics and epidemiology, was recently presented with a National Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science at the Translational Science 2013 meeting in Washington, DC.
Dr. Strom was named a 2013 Career Distinguished Investigator for his “outstanding contributions to translational science from clinical use into public benefit and policy.” A nationally-recognized leader in clinical research training and clinical epidemiology, Dr. Strom focuses heavily on the field of pharmacoepidemiology, which is the application of epidemiologic methods to study drug use and effects in populations. He is known as a founder of the field of pharmacoepidemiology and a pioneer in using large automated databases for research.
As one of many specific contributions, his work was also pivotal in getting the American Heart Association and American Dental Association to reverse 50 years of guidelines and recommend against use of antibiotics to prevent infective endocarditis, instead of recommending for this widespread practice. Since 10 percent of patients have these conditions and the typical patient undergoes dental care twice yearly, this resulted in a large proportion of the population no longer needing frequent antibiotics.
The awards committee for the Translational Science 2013 annual meeting is made up of representatives from Association for Clinical and Translational Science and the American Federation for Medical Research (ACTS/AFMR). This is the fourth year ACTS/AFMR has acknowledged distinguished investigators and educators who have had national impact by virtue of contributions to clinical and translational science. Three awards were presented this year, including translation from bench research to patient application and translation from early clinical use to applicability for widespread clinical practice.
In addition to his responsibilities as executive vice dean, Dr. Strom is also the George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and a professor of medicine and pharmacology.
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Almanac -
May 7, 2013, Volume 59, No. 32
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