June 2008

June People Notes

Claudia Abeijon-Gherbesi has been appointed a research assistant professor in the department of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She has been a research assistant temporary employee at Cummings since September 2006; before that, she was an assistant professor in the department of molecular and cell biology at the Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston University.

Frank Ackerman, director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), and Kevin P. Gallagher, senior researcher at GDAE, have an article forthcoming in the spring 2008 issue of the International Journal of Political Economy titled "Computable General Equilibrium Models and the Shrinking Gains from Global Trade Liberalization: A Critical Assessment."

Nalini Ambady, professor of psychology, received the Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award for 2007-08 from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

Cristelle Baskins, associate professor of art history, was awarded the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award for 2007-08 by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

Mary Alicia Barnes and Mary Evenson, fieldwork coordinators in the department of occupational therapy, presented a full-day, train-the-trainer workshop on May 13 on fieldwork education at Tufts. The participants, occupational therapy and physical therapy practitioners who work in schools and hospitals in the New England area, were extremely positive about the depth and immediate applicability of the workshop content. This workshop has been offered annually for more than a decade to all local training affiliates of the department of occupational therapy.

Randy Boudrieau, professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, attended the KYON 2008 Symposium on "Innovations in Veterinary Orthopedics and Trauma" in April in Zurich, Switzerland.

Bob Bridges, professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, was invited to give presentations at seminars at Georgia State University and Rhode Island College. The titles of his seminars, respectively, were "Molding the Maternal Brain: Developmental, Hormonal and Experiential Devices" and "Prolactin and the Maternal Brain: How Experience Alters Neural Processing."

Sherry Castonguay has been promoted to animal care supervisor in the Division of Teaching and Research Resources (DTRR) at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She joined Tufts in 1997 as an animal care attendant within DTRR, and has been an assistant lab animal technician since 2001. She is active in the New England branch of American Association of Laboratory Animal Science, competing in the annual Tech Challenge and attending monthly meetings.

Sang Woon Choi, associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, received the American Society for Nutrition's Mead Johnson Award for Research in Nutrition. Choi was recognized for his "significant contributions to understanding the interactions among folate, aging and colon cancer." He is also a scientist in the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts.

Lenore Cowen, associate professor of computer science, has received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for her work on "Computational Methods for Wrapping and Threading Remote Protein Homologs." She begins work on the four-year grant on September 1.

Jacqueline Dejean, research administrator for Arts and Sciences, began in the new position in November 2007. Prior to joining Tufts, she was assistant director in the Office of Sponsored Programs at the Education Development Center Inc. She has been instrumental in grant submission preparation, including a recent collaborative submission to the National Science Foundation by the departments of mathematics, education and physics and astronomy.

Daniel Dennett, University Professor and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, was included in Foreign Policy's top 100 public intellectuals list in its May/June 2008 issue. The top 20, based on a vote among the journal's readers, will be published in its July/August issue.

Leila Fawaz, the Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies and director of the Fares Center, was named a 2008 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corp. She will receive a two-year grant for up to $100,000 for her research project, "The Experience of War: Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia, 1914-1920."

Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, professor of chemical and biological engineering, received the 2008 Henry J. Albert Award from the International Precious Metals Institute, in recognition of her major contributions to clean energy technologies, specifically her investigations into novel nanoscale catalysts and sorbents for air pollutant control in power generation and for the production of clean hydrogen for fuel cell use. The $5,000 prize will be awarded at the annual IPMI conference in June.

Lisa Freeman, professor of nutrition in the clinical sciences department at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, attended the American Animal Hospital Association annual conference in Tampa, Fla., in March. She gave presentations on practical parenteral nutrition, improving critical care outcomes with nutrition and incorporating enteral nutrition for optimal care.

Kevin P. Gallagher, senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), appeared on Bloomberg Television's In Focus program on May 5 in a segment about the U.S. presidential elections and the economic impact of NAFTA on Mexico. Gallagher and Mount Holyoke College economist Eva Paus have an article in the spring 2008 issue of Studies in Comparative International Development titled "Missing Links: Foreign Investment and Industrial Development in Mexico and Costa Rica." UK-based publisher Anthem Press has accepted a manuscript edited by Gallagher and the late Argentine economist Daniel Chudnovsky. The volume is tentatively titled Rethinking Foreign Investment for Sustainable Development: Lessons from the Americas.

Jonathan Garlick, professor and director of the Division of Cancer Biology and Tissue Engineering at the School of Dental Medicine, had seven high school students in his research lab for a one-month externship experience in stem cells and tissue engineering. The program, which Garlick arranged with the Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass., gives seniors an opportunity to experience a research lab environment, allowing them to develop critical thinking skills in a real-life work setting. They are assigned projects in tissue engineering, tissue culture and cancer biology. Garlick, who is mentoring the students, is assisted on the project by his postdoctoral associate, Mark Carlson.

Scott Gilbert, associate professor of medicine, received an Attending Excellence in Teaching Award from the Class of 2008 at the School of Medicine.

Neva Goodwin, co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute, participated in a news conference in April calling for change at ExxonMobil Corp., including increased investment in renewable energy.

Marcie Hershman, a lecturer in the English department, served as the sole fiction judge for the 2008 PEN Winship Award, given annually for "the best book of fiction published by a New England writer or about a New England subject." The award ceremony took place on March 30 at the Kennedy Library, in conjunction with the PEN Hemingway Awards. Writer Rishi Reddi received the PEN Winship for her first collection, Karma and Other Stories (HarperCollins).

Munther Homoud, assistant professor of cardiology, received an Attending Excellence in Teaching Award from the Class of 2008 at the School of Medicine.

Carsten Kowalczyk, associate professor of international economics at the Fletcher School, presented his research on trade negotiations at seminars at the Copenhagen Business School, Singapore Management University, City University of Hong Kong, Buffalo University and Vanderbilt University.

Michael Kowaleski, associate professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, gave presentations at the Biomedtrix Universal Total Hip Replacement Workshop at Ohio State University in April on radiographic templating for total hip replacement, acetabular cup technique and decision-making in total hip replacement.

Shannon Krick is the new administrative assistant to Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Sternberg. She previously was at the University of California Merced, where she assisted the president and COO of a university foundation.

Joann Lindenmayer, associate professor of public health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, has been chosen to chair the public health committee of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, starting in 2009.

Janet Martin, research assistant professor of wildlife medicine at the Cummings School, participated in the USDA-Wildlife Services 10th annual rabies management team meeting in Mobile, Ala., from March 31 to April 3.

Brendan McMullen, assistant professor of environmental and population health at the Tufts Ambulatory Service, attended the Northeast Dairy Production Medicine Symposium in Syracuse, N.Y., in late March. His presentation on caprine parasite control at the Connecticut Small Ruminant Symposium in October 2007 was featured in Haemonchus contortus: Managing the Blood Sucking Parasite, by John Hibma in Dairy Goat Journal, Vol. 86, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 2008.

Gilbert Metcalf, professor of economics, was featured on CNBC for his research on policy proposals to reduce carbon emissions. He also sponsored a letter with Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution opposing proposals for a gas tax holiday. In a matter of days, the letter gathered more than 300 signatures, including those of six Nobel Laureates in economics and four current or former presidents of the American Economic Association. The letter and list of signers may be viewed at http://gastax08.blogspot.com/. He is also cited in the article "Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday slammed as bad idea."

Simin Nikbin Meydani, professor of nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and associate director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, received the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award from the American Society for Nutrition for her work in the biochemical and metabolic aspects of human nutrition.

Paul Milbury, scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and assistant professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, received the Will Solimene Award for Excellence in Medical Communication from the American Medical Writers Association at the 53rd Meeting of the World Organization for Human Potential on May 8 in Wyndmoor, Pa.

Martin Obin, scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Andrew Greenberg, director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the HNRCA, are leading a team that has been awarded a four-year, $1 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. They will investigate mechanisms regulating immune cell responses to obesity-induced adipocyte death and how these responses contribute to inflammation and obesity complications. Additional key collaborators include Richard Van Etten, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Tufts Medical Center and other colleagues in France and Italy.

Dominique Penninck, professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, was a guest lecturer at the University of Bologna, Italy, in April. She gave 19 lectures, including 13 as solo speaker on imaging of the GI tract, pancreas, liver, biliary tract and interventional ultrasound to veterinarians and students.

Robert Russell, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and a professor at the Friedman and medical schools, received the David Kritchevsky Career Achievement Award in Nutrition from the American Society for Nutrition . The ASN noted his contributions to all sectors of nutrition research, his own research on vitamin A and its precursors, his leadership in professional nutrition-related societies and his editorial contributions to Nutrition Reviews and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He also received the Distinguished Career in Teaching Award from the Class of 2008 at the School of Medicine.

Laurence Senelick, the Fletcher Professor of Oratory and professor of drama, received the Graduate Faculty Doctoral Teaching Award for 2007-08 from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

Patrick Skelly, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veteinary Medicine, presented "Gene Silencing in the Human Parasitic Platyhelminth, Schistosoma mansoni" by Greice Krautz-Peterson, research associate; David Ndegwa, research assistant; and Skelly at the Keystone Symposia's "RNAi, MicroRNA and Non-Coding RNA" in Whistler, British Columbia.

Grace Talusan, lecturer in English, published an essay in the book, From Hip-Hop to Hyperlinks: Teaching about Culture in the Composition Classroom (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) about her experiences teaching first-year writing. The essay is titled "Diversity and Active Citizenship in the Composition Classroom."

David Walt, the Robinson Professor of Chemistry, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for developing sensors that can simultaneously image and perform biochemical analyses. He is also an adjunct professor in the biomedical engineering department in the School of Engineering. Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

Lara Weaver, V00, has been appointed interim director of the Division of Teaching and Research Resources (DTRR) at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating from Tufts, Weaver worked as a clinical laboratory animal veterinarian with Charles River Laboratories Inc. for three years, and then returned to Tufts as an assistant director in DTRR. Since that time, she has played important clinical service roles in laboratory and farm animal care on the Grafton campus and has also been actively involved in teaching in both the professional and master's in science laboratory animal medicine programs.

Tim Wise, deputy director at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), spoke on a panel at the meetings of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development on May 12. The panel discussion on the topic "Are OECD Policies Contributing to Global Agricultural Sustainability?" was organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's sustainable development department. Drawing on his work on the environmental impacts of northern agricultural policies and his forthcoming working group report on the impacts of trade liberalization on agriculture in Latin America, Wise presented on the environmental costs of OECD agricultural policies.

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