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February 18, 2009

February People Notes

Frank Ackerman, senior research fellow with the Global Development and Environment Institute, and a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and Liz Stanton, research fellow with GDAE and staff scientist with SEI, along with other U.S. and Swedish researchers from SEI, were in Beijing in mid-December for meetings about China’s response to climate change during “China Economists 50,” a forum of the country’s top economists in government and academia. Chinese and international participants presented draft papers on emission reduction scenarios, domestic policy options and international agreements affecting China’s carbon emissions.

S. Walter Askinas, executive associate dean emeritus of the School of Dental Medicine and professor of restorative dentistry emeritus, was named the first professor emeritus at Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine on December 7 during Nova’s sixth annual faculty appreciation brunch. Associate Dean Mark Gonthier represented Tufts at the event and spoke about Askinas’ legacy as one of the dental school’s most beloved teachers. Askinas taught at Tufts from 1983 to 1997, and upon his retirement, an endowed senior award, the Dr. Walter Askinas Senior Prize Fund for Integrity and Citizenship, was established. After he left Tufts, Askinas joined the Nova faculty as chair of the department of restorative dentistry.

Barry Briss, D66, DG70, professor of orthodontics at the School of Dental Medicine, attended the inaugural meeting of the Joint Cephalometrics Experts Group, of which he is a member, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, from November 21 to 23. The group’s mission is to map out a plan for the transition from 2D cephalometrics to 3D cone-beam imaging for assessment of orthodontic outcomes, as well as diagnosis and treatment planning.

John Burns, lead researcher at the Feinstein International Center, has received a $924,000 grant from CARE/USAID to conduct a three-year longitudinal study on the impact of nongovernmental organization market-based and microfinance interventions. The research will be done in three highland areas of Ethiopia. It will seek to determine whether combinations of market-led and microfinance interventions produce income and asset transfers over time, with associated graduation of poor rural households from the government safety net program.

Daniel Carr, adjunct professor of anesthesiology at the School of Medicine, is a co-editor of the fourth edition of the classic reference text on anesthesia, Neural Blockade in Clinical Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009). Morton Rosenberg, D74, professor and director of anesthesia and pain control at the School of Dental Medicine, contributed to a chapter titled “Neural Blockade of Oral and Circumoral Structures.”

Richard Ferraro, D62, has been honored by the Oral Health Foundation for his role in establishing the nation’s first dental clinic in a community health center—a concept that began in 1967 at the Columbia Point Community Health Center in Dorchester and was quickly replicated across the United States.

Kevin Gallagher, senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute, was in Washington on December 18 for a high-level workshop to discuss the appropriate role for subsidies in public policy. Convened by the Wallace Global Fund and Public Citizen, the all-day meeting brought together a wide range of expert perspectives on the issue. Gallagher, one of four people invited to present, discussed the economic rationale for government intervention in the economy.

Kanchan Ganda, professor of general dentistry, has published her first book, Dentist’s Guide to Medical Conditions and Complications (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).

Jonathan Garlick, professor of oral and maxillofacial pathology, and Andrew Plaut, professor of medicine, will speak at a workshop titled “Decision Making in T1 Translational Research,” which will be hosted in mid-February by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health and the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium. Garlick will speak on engineered 3D tissue models as translational tools for the discovery pipeline, while Plaut will talk about bacterial IgA protease as a therapy to reverse IgA nephropathy.

Mark Gonthier, associate dean of admissions and student affairs at the School of Dental Medicine, participated in a roundtable discussion panel on “The Impact of Dental Schools on the Future Delivery of Dental Care” on December 13 at the Northeast Delta Dental Conference Center in Concord, N.H. The panel explored the role of existing and proposed dental schools in New England on access to care for residents of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Aidee Herman, associate clinical professor of periodontology, Eric Weinstock, D00, DG02, assistant clinical professor of general dentistry, and Nathan Birnbaum of prosthodontics and operative dentistry, were inducted into the American College of Dentists during the annual meeting of the American Dental Association last fall in San Antonio, Texas.

Justin Hollander, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, was a featured speaker at the Northeast Regional Computing Program Second Life Users Group (SLUG) Fest on January 23. Hollander addressed the group of higher education academic technologists about his pioneering use of the web-based 3D environment Second Life in his teaching and research. David Grogan, manager of curricular technology, and UIT Academic Technology have been supporting Hollander’s use of Second Life for more than two years. For more information, check out http://www.tufts.edu/~jholla03/second_life_class.html.

Alice Lichtenstein, the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts, presented a talk titled “Dietary Effects on Insulin Resistance” in the session titled “Obesity, Insulin Resistance and Diabetes Update” at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans. She also chaired the session titled “Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award for Young Investigators in Training Competition.”

Joel Mason, director of the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis Laboratory at the HNRCA and associate professor at the Friedman School, was invited to a meeting of the European Food Safety Authority in Sweden in January to discuss the risks and benefits of fortification of food with folic acid.

Noshir Mehta, DG73, DI77, professor of general dentistry, was invited by Google to write knowledge-based position papers on four areas in dentistry for the Knol site. They are on tooth pain, mouth guards, temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD) and bruxism.

Siobhan Mor successfully defended her doctoral thesis on December 17 to become the second Ph.D. graduate at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. The title of her thesis is “Epidemiology of Cryptosporidiosis and Related Infections in Sensitive Populations.” Professor Saul Tzipori was her mentor.

Julie Nelson, senior research fellow with the Global Development and Environment Institute, presented two papers at the Allied Social Science Associations in San Francisco on January 3: “Boundary-making in the Social Sciences: Gender and the Evolution of the ASSA,” jointly sponsored by the International Association for Feminist Economics and the Association for Social Economics; and “The Science/Value Split in Economics: Repercussions for Discussion of Climate Change and Poverty,” sponsored by the International Network for Economic Method.

David Paul, D89, has been promoted to associate professor of general dentistry at the School of Dental Medicine.

Beatrice Rogers, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, conducted a workshop in December for the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare on the application of small area estimation to “hunger mapping,” or the estimation of national malnutrition prevalence at geographically disaggregated levels. The workshop was conducted jointly with James Wirth, who was a research associate at the Friedman School for two years before joining the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Geneva.

Samuel Shames, D75, was recently promoted to associate clinical professor of general dentistry at the School of Dental Medicine.

Patrick Skelly’s Natural History magazine article in June 2008 was selected to receive honorable mention from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene communications award committee at the 57th meeting of the society in New Orleans in December. Skelly is an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Guangwen Tang, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was awarded a grant by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture in Basel, Switzerland, to study the effect of fat intake on vitamin A equivalency of golden rice.

Gloria White-Hammond, M76, a university trustee, was named the 2008 recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in late November. Her work as a humanitarian has achieved global impact. She has worked as a medical missionary in several African countries, including Botswana, Ivory Coast and South Africa. Since 2001, White-Hammond has made numerous trips to southern Sudan, where she was involved in obtaining the freedom of 10,000 women and children who were enslaved during the two-decades-long civil war. In 2002 she co-founded My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women of Sudan in their efforts toward reconciliation and reconstruction of their communities.

Leslie Will, professor of orthodontics at the dental school, was a guest lecturer in the department of orthodontics and maxillofacial orthognathics at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University last fall. Her topic was “Enhancing Patient Care with Cone Beam CT.” Will also was a visiting professor in the department of orthodontics at Khon Kaen University Faculty of Dentistry in Khon Kaen, Thailand, in early October. She spent several days lecturing on orthognathic surgery and growth and development.

Timothy A. Wise, director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute, and Kevin Gallagher, senior researcher at GDAE, published the article, “Putting Development Back in the WTO,” in Looking Beyond Doha: New Thinking on Trade Policy and Development. As the latest attempt to conclude the Doha negotiations failed, Wise and Gallagher argue that it is time to rethink trade policy in fundamental ways.