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Honors & Other Things |
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December 8, 2015, Volume 62, No. 16 |
Sunday Akintoye: Fulbright Scholar
Jean Bennett and Paul Offit: Members, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bridgette Brawner: MFP National Advisory Committee
The D. Walter Cohen, DDS Service to Science Award
Kazuma Kitagaito: Clinical Research Award
Roger LaMay: Chair, NPR Board of Directors
Maureen Rush and Penn DPS: Security Magazine Honorees
Wei Tang and Jianan Zhang: BLTa Student Design Competition Winners
Daniel Yergin: Carnot Prize
Sunday Akintoye: Fulbright Scholar
Sunday Akintoye, an associate professor in Penn’s School of Dental Medicine, was selected as a Fulbright Scholar. The award will enable him to spend several months of the 2015-2016 academic year in Nigeria, his native country, teaching and mentoring students and young faculty members.
Dr. Akintoye will help to update the dental school curriculum at the University of Lagos to incorporate more instruction in how to conduct research. He will serve as an advisor to the senior students as they embark on thesis projects, and will teach a course on research methodologies.
He has also developed a research project that will be feasible to carry out with the equipment available to the students in Lagos. The investigation will look at the issue of how aging-related changes manifest in teeth, specifically examining changes in key molecular markers in dental pulp.
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Jean Bennett and Paul Offit: Members, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Jean Bennett and Paul A. Offit have been elected as new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. They were inducted at a ceremony in October at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Bennettis the F.M. Kirby Professor of Molecular Ophthalmology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
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Bridgette Brawner: MFP National Advisory Committee
Bridgette Brawner, assistant professor of nursing at Penn, was appointed to the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) National Advisory Committee, which is dedicated to advising MFP staff; developing partnerships with professional, academic and clinical institutions; and soliciting support from individuals and groups for the initiative.
Dr. Brawner’s research agenda focuses on multi-level, multi-method, bio-behavioral approaches to sexual health promotion in disenfranchised populations. One consistent thread throughout her research to date has been a passion and vision for physical and mental health among urban women and girls, with a commitment to maintaining strong community ties.
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The D. Walter Cohen, DDS Service to Science Award
In celebration of the 35th anniversary of its founding, the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) announced the establishment of the D. Walter Cohen, DDS Service to Science Award. D. Walter Cohen, dean emeritus of the School of Dental Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, is the inaugural recipient. He received the award in October at the NDRI celebration.
In subsequent years, the D. Walter Cohen, DDS, Service to Science Award will be presented to an individual whose career exemplifies a commitment of service to science.
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Kazuma Kitagaito: Clinical Research Award
Third-year Penn Dental Medicine student Kazuma Kitagaito, D’17, MSE’17, was recognized for his clinical research with an award presented in November at the 21st annual Hinman Student Research Symposium in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry and the Hinman Dental Society. Mr. Kitagaito received one of four clinical research awards for outstanding presentations from among the 94 participating students.
Mr. Kitagaito’s project evaluated the pre-treatment of composite resin restorations with the antimicrobial agent chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX) as an intermediate step in inhibiting the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) to preserve resin/dentin bond durability. The project was directed by Fusun Ozer, associate professor of restorative dentistry at Penn Dental Medicine.
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Roger LaMay: Chair, NPR Board of Directors
Roger LaMay, general manager of WXPN, was elected by the NPR Board of Directors as chair of the Board. He was re-elected to a second term on the Board in September, and will continue his three-year term as member director. He started his one-year term as chair at the November Board meeting in Washington, D.C.
A 30-plus year broadcast veteran, Mr. LaMay joined WXPN, the non-commercial, member-supported radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, in January 2003. He is responsible for the overall operations of the station, including fundraising, programming and marketing. During his tenure, WXPN forged a long-term partnership/distribution agreement with NPR and NPR Music, moved and expanded its annual summer music festival and launched its popular Free at Noon live weekly concert series.
Mr. LaMay earned his master’s degree in organizational dynamics from Penn in 2000 and his bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College.
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Maureen Rush and Penn DPS: Security Magazine Honorees
Maureen Rush, vice president for public safety and superintendent of the Penn Police Department, was honored by Security Magazine as one of the “Most Influential People in Security.” She was one of only three honorees in the education sector.
Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania was ranked #1 in safety and security in the higher education sector for the ninth consecutive year in the publication’s “Security 500” list. This top-500 ranking creates a reliable database for organizations to measure themselves in comparison to the performance of their colleagues.
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Wei Tang and Jianan Zhang: BLTa Student Design Competition Winners
PennDesign graduate students Wei Tang and Jianan Zhang won first and third place, respectively, in the Bower Lewis Thrower Architects (BLTa) Student Design Competition.
Now in its fifth year, the competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in certified architectural programs. BLTa, a Philadelphia firm, identifies a local building site each year and asks contestants to redesign it. This year’s competition was at the Leon H. Sullivan Human Services Center near Temple University on North Broad Street.
As the competition winner, Mr. Tang received a cash award of $1,000 and secured a paid internship with BLTa during 2016. Ms. Zhang received a cash prize of $250 for her design entry.
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Daniel Yergin: Carnot Prize
The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy honored Daniel Yergin with the inaugural Carnot Prize. The Prize memorializes French scientist Sadi Carnot, who in 1824 published “Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire” at the age of 28. The Prize is intended to honor those who have revolutionized our understanding of energy policy.
This year’s Carnot Prize was presented in October by former Governor Edward Rendell, C’65, during the opening celebration for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy’s new space in Penn’s iconic Fisher Fine Arts Library. Dr. Yergin is recognized for his “distinguished contributions to energy policy through scholarship and practice.”
Dr. Yergin is vice chairman of the research firm IHS, a world-recognized authority on global energy policy and markets. He concluded his latest book, The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World (2011), with the story of Carnot. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his previous book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power (1991), which has been translated into 19 languages. |
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Almanac -
December 8, 2015, Volume 62, No. 16
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