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September 23, 2009

September 2009 People Notes

Astier Almedom, director of the International Resilience Program of the Institute for Global Leadership and a professor of the practice at the Fletcher School, was one of three keynote speakers at two resilience workshops funded by the Research and Innovation Centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation in Trentino, Italy. The first workshop was included in the International Symposium on Society and Resource Management as a special event, an “Open Space” workshop in Vienna on July 8. The second was held on July 10 in San Michele all’Adige in Trentino, Italy, also as a special event open to a range of academic and professional participants.

Susanne Belovari, the archivist with Digital Collections and Archives, was selected as one of 25 archivists nationwide to participate at the Second National Archives Leadership Institute at University of Wisconsin in July. Her online research exhibit about Edward R. Murrow’s life and work, which is based on the papers held at Tufts, won wide recognition and has been featured as one of six general websites by Internet Scout Report. Her article titled “Archives under Siege” suggested the establishment of a new archival sub-field to address the challenges raised by archives partially destroyed through political violence. The article was published last spring in the new online Research Forum Journal of the Society of American Archivists. As co-organizer and member of the academic committee of the International Council on Archives Section on University and Research Institution Archives, Belovari will attend the organization’s annual conference in Rio de Janeiro in September. In addition, she has been invited to give a talk about archival source material regarding culinary heritage at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in December.

Jeffrey Berry, professor of political science in the School of Arts and Sciences, received the Samuel J. Eldersveld Career Achievement Award for his longstanding contributions to the study of political organization and parties. He was selected for the award by the Political Organizations and Parties Section of American Political Science Association.

Anish Bhardwaj began work in August as neurologist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center and chair of neurology at the School of Medicine. His research focuses on methods for protecting the brain after acute stroke, for which he has received substantial and ongoing NIH funding. He will lead the medical center’s neurology services and research initiatives and play a major role in expanding the hospital’s neuroscience clinical and research program. Bhardwaj comes to Tufts from the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University, where he served as professor and vice chair of neurology and director of the Neurosciences Critical Care Program and Neuroscience Stroke Laboratory. He previously was vice chair of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Alison Blackburn has joined Tufts as director of human resources and talent management, leading the employee relations and employment group on the Medford/Somerville campus. She has worked in human resources in a number of industries, including biotechnology, legal and retail.

Marianne Blaney joined University Advancement in August as assistant director of the Tufts Dental Fund in the dental school’s development and alumni relations office. She previously was with the annual fund at Simmons College and the president’s office at Emerson College, where she worked extensively with alumni volunteers, students, parents and administrators. Prior to entering higher ed, she developed a catering business and worked for many years in corporate human resources.

Bruce Boghosian, professor and chair of mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, served as scholar-in-residence at the School of Engineering of the American University of Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia, from July 14 to August 3. He delivered four lectures there—two on fluid turbulence, one on mathematical models of the earth’s climate and one on quantum computing. On July 24, he was inducted as a foreign member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.

Rocco G. Ciocca, associate professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and chief of vascular surgery at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, volunteered to fill a surgical rotation slot for two weeks in August at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, where many soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are treated. He joined 51 other members of the Society for Vascular Surgery in relieving military vascular surgeons.

Christina Crosby has joined the School of Dental Medicine as the budget and accounting coordinator, supporting departmental financial and operational needs. Crosby graduated in the spring from Merrimack College, where she studied business administration.

Barbara Davis has joined the faculty of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine as a professor of pathology. She received her veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania, did her pathology residency at North Carolina State University and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. She also has a Ph.D. in pathology from North Carolina State, and established a very successful research program in female reproductive toxicology. Before coming to Tufts, Davis was a principal scientist for AstraZeneca and the associate director of toxicology and pathology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

Kathleen Devigne, J96, has been appointed the new assistant director of the International Relations Program. Devigne is no stranger to Tufts, having spent the past 17 years here, first as an undergraduate and then as an employee in various Arts and Sciences programs, the executive assistant to the dean of the School of Engineering and most recently as an assistant and associate director of development in University Advancement. She is also an elected member of the Alumni Council, the governing body of the Tufts Alumni Association.

Kevin Gallagher, a senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute, has been invited to serve on a subcommittee of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. The subcommittee will review the investment measures of U.S. trade and investment treaties and prepare a report regarding the extent to which the template for such treaties should be changed. Gallagher was awarded tenure at Boston University in July; he is now an associate professor of international economics in BU’s department of international relations.

Rumpa Ganguly has joined the School of Dental Medicine as assistant professor of general dentistry. Ganguly received her D.M.D. from the Dr. R. Ahmed Dental College and Hospital in Kolkata, India. She also earned a master’s degree in oral and maxillofacial radiology from the University of Iowa.

Nancy Gramolini and Amanda Yost Parker, senior associates in prospect research and management in University Advancement, gave a presentation on “Compensation: Finding the Enigmatic Piece of the Puzzle” at the recent international conference of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement.

Jonathan Harris, director of the Theory and Education Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), and Neva Goodwin, co-director of GDAE, recently had the U.S. edition of their book, Twenty-First Century Macroeconomics: Responding to the Climate Challenge, published by Edward Elgar. Contributors include Brian Roach, Frank Ackerman and Sivan Kartha of Tufts. Harris also gave a talk on “Population, Resources and Energy in the Global Economy: A Vindication of Herman Daly’s Vision” at a conference of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics in June in Washington, D.C.

Justin Hollander, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning in the School of Arts and Sciences, gave an invited lecture on the intersection of social justice and brownfields reuse in urban areas as part of a course co-sponsored by the Center for African American Studies and the Program in American Studies at Princeton University in May.

Robert D. Hormats, A65, F66, F67, F70, was in July nominated by President Barack Obama to become undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs. Hormats is vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), having joined the firm in 1982. He was assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs from 1981 to 1982, ambassador and deputy U.S. trade representative from 1979 to 1981, and senior deputy assistant secretary for economic and business affairs at the Department of State from 1977 to 1979. He served as a senior staff member for international economic affairs on the National Security Council from 1969 to 1977, when he was senior economic advisor to Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Ralph R. Isberg, professor of microbiology, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. One of 72 new U.S. members elected to the academy this year, Isberg is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the School of Medicine and a member of the Molecular Microbiology Program at the Sackler School. Isberg’s research focuses on the analysis of bacterial uptake and growth in mammalian cells, the earliest stages of the infection process. Comprising just 2,150 elite scientists, the National Academy of Sciences, established in 1863 by an act of Congress, advises the federal government in matters of science and technology.

Venkatesh Iyengar, an adjunct professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, has been invited to speak at the International Congress of Nutrition in Bangkok in October. The title of his talk is “Applied Metrology for Strengthening Food and Nutritional Measurements: Ways, Means and Outcomes.” Iyengar also will give an invited talk, “Food Safety Security: An Open-ended Issue,” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Nutrition Society of India in Hyderabad in November.

Maya Karwande, A09, is the recipient of the 2009 Peace & Justice Studies Association undergraduate student research award. Her project, “Failure to Engage: Outreach at the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber,” was recognized for “its strong analytical components, going beyond the descriptive to discuss applications for the future.” The award includes a $500 travel stipend for Karwande to present her study at the annual conference of the Peace & Justice Studies Association in Milwaukee in October.

Brendan P. Kelly, an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics and associate director of the Med-Peds residency program at Baystate Medical Center, is one of three recipients of a Professionalism Fellowship from the board of directors of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. AOA created the Professionalism Fellowship this year to emphasize the crucial role of professionalism in being a physician. Kelly has been awarded $12,500 to develop new combinations of programs for teaching professionalism to residents in all specialties.

Samuel Kounaves, a professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, in August received the NASA Achievement Award for “outstanding performance in the planning and execution of the science for the Phoenix Mars mission.” He also hosted and chaired “The New Mars Chemistry” conference at Tufts at the end of July. At the conference more than 60 NASA and academic researchers from the across the country discussed the implications of the latest results from the Phoenix Mars Mission.

Brian Lee, vice president for University Advancement, will chair next year’s Summit for Advancement Leaders, a signature event of the Council for the Support and Advancement of Education (CASE). The summit offers members of the senior advancement community a forum to discuss diverse issues affecting the future of advancement. Lee also serves on the CASE board of trustees.

Henry Lee, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Stephen Moss, professor of neuroscience, has received a Founder’s Affiliate American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. In his work, Lee will attempt to determine if modified KCC2 membrane trafficking underlies compromised neuronal inhibition after ischemia, a condition in which blood flow, and therefore oxygen, to a part of the body are restricted. He hopes his research will provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms that regulate the functional expression of KCC2 and by doing so facilitate the development of treatments that will limit neuronal cell death after ischemia.

Nathan Lee, V05, has joined the Cummings School as a staff veterinarian and radiation oncologist at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals. He recently completed a two-year residency in radiation oncology at Tufts. As a fourth-year veterinary student, Lee received the American College of Veterinary Radiology Award. After graduation, he was an ultrasound clinician at Tuskegee University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and an associate emergency clinician in Atlanta. Lee is a member of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

Tafphane LeGrande joined the School of Dental Medicine as a medical billing manager, supporting the Craniofacial Pain Center and faculty practice clinics. LeGrande comes to Tufts with eight years of experience in medical billing at health-care centers in the Boston area.

Emily McCobb, V00, V03, was named director of the shelter medicine program at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine on August 3. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Claremont McKenna College, she received a D.V.M. in 2000 from the Cummings School and an M.S. from the Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy. McCobb is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiology and has worked as an anesthesiologist at Tufts VETS specialty clinic in Walpole as well as at the Tufts hospitals on the Grafton campus. She serves on the Animal Rescue League Center for Shelter Dogs advisory board and the board of directors of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition. Her research interests include pain measurement and management, animal welfare and hospice care for animals. In addition to her duties as director of the shelter medicine program, McCobb will assume leadership of the Animals in Community section of the newly reorganized Center for Animals and Public Policy.

Nancy Morrison, director of the Parents Program in University Advancement, presented a talk on international parent fundraising at the 24th annual Parent Fundraising Conference at the University of Vermont in July. She was also a member of the conference planning committee.

Mario E. Motta, M78, assistant clinical professor of medicine, has been elected president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide professional organization of physicians. He will serve a one-year term as the top officer of the society, whose membership includes more than 21,000 physicians, residents and medical students throughout the commonwealth. Motta is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and has been on the Tufts faculty since 1993.

Monica White Ndounou, an assistant professor of drama in the School of Arts and Sciences, published an essay titled “Encountering Black Culture in Acting Classrooms and Beyond” in the March issue of Theatre Topics: Teaching African American Theatre.

Julie Nelson, a senior research fellow at the Global Development and Environment Institute, participated in the International Association for Feminist Economics conference, which took place at Simmons College in Boston in June. She then traveled to Portugal in July to teach at the Centre for Social Studies’s Critical Economics Summer School at the University of Coimbra.

Pierre Omidyar, A88, a university trustee, was appointed to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships by President Barack Obama this summer. Commission members are responsible for recommending candidates to the president for selection as White House Fellows. “The men and women of this commission embody what makes the White House Fellows program so special,” said Obama. “These leaders are diverse, non-partisan and committed to mentoring our next generation of public servants. I’m confident that they will select a class of White House Fellows who demonstrate extraordinary leadership, strong character and a deep commitment to serving their country.”

John O. Pastore, associate professor of medicine, has been appointed vice president of medical affairs at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, a teaching affiliate of Tufts School of Medicine. Over the past 35 years, Pastore has established a successful cardiology practice in addition to serving in progressive leadership roles at St. Elizabeth’s.

Scott Perkins, director of the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine on the Boston and Medford/Somerville campuses, is the 2009 president of the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). His term ends at the close of the 60th AALAS national meeting in Denver in mid-November. Perkins, who is also an assistant clinical professor of environmental and population health at the Cummings School, was an invited speaker for the annual conference of the Australian and New Zealand Laboratory Animal Association that took place in early September in Wellington.

Ronald Pies, clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical School, received the Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Education from the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society at its annual meeting in May.

Chris Pirie, a veterinary ophthalmologist, will join the Cummings School’s department of clinical sciences in late September. He is a 2003 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. He completed a one-year rotating internship at Guelph in 2004, and then completed a fellowship in the Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. He spent a year in private practice before beginning his residency in 2006 at the Cummings School. His research interests are in optics, ocular pharmacology and immunology.

Todd Quinto, the Robinson Professor of Mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, spent a month this summer in Stockholm doing research on electron microscopy with colleagues at the Karolinska Institute. The work was funded by a grant from the Swedish Wenner Gren Foundation. He also co-organized the Mathematical Research Communities conference on inverse problems in June. The goal of the conference is to create a community of young mathematicians in the field, and participants gave lively informal talks about their research and performed research together. Two participants have been invited to give talks at Tufts in the fall. Quinto also organized a mini-symposium at the Applied Inverse Problems conference in Vienna in July.

Leon Reijmers has joined the medical school as an assistant professor of neuroscience. He was named a 2009 Alzheimer’s Association New Investigator and will receive funding for his project, “Imaging of Memory Circuits in the Presence of Soluble Amyloid-Beta,” which will examine the effects of soluble amyloid-beta on neural circuits that store a memory. The results will help explain the presence of cognitive impairments during the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Eric Rosenberg, an associate professor of art history in the School of Arts and Sciences, gave a talk on “Rethinking the Hudson River School in 1851” as part of a graduate seminar on the Hudson River School at Williams College/The Clark Art Institute. In April, he delivered an invited paper titled “Greenberg’s Diebenkorn: Abstract Expressionism’s Development and the Medium as Meme” for the Harvard University symposium “Clement Greenberg at 100: Looking Back to Modern Art.” He also contributed the chapter “J. Frank Currier, Munich and the Anxious State of American Art ca. 1880” in the book American Artists in Munich: Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange Processes, which will be published this fall by Deutscher Kunstverlag. This summer he completed work on a co-authored book in University of California Press’s Defining Moments in American Photography series, as well as a review essay for the journal American Literature on recent publications in American art.

Barbara Rubel, director of community relations, received the City of Medford’s 2009 Disability Awareness Award in recognition of her commitment and active approach to addressing disability issues throughout the Medford community. She received the award on June 24 in Mayor Michael J. McGlynn’s office.

Amit Sachdeo, an assistant professor of prosthodontics and operative dentistry, was a guest speaker at the Greater New York Academy of Prosthodontists scientific meeting held in June at Columbia University, where he gave a presentation titled “Biofilms in the Edentulous Oral Cavity.” Sachdeo received the America’s Top Dentists 2009 award from the Consumers’ Research Council of America. He was also an oral health screener at the Massachusetts Special Olympics state games held in June in Boston.

George Scarlett, deputy chair of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development in the School of Arts and Sciences, has a new book coming out in October, The Baseball Starter: A Handbook for Coaching Children and Teens (McFarland). He also contributed a chapter on religious and spiritual development across the life span in the Handbook of Life Span Psychology, which is being published this fall. Also this fall, four Tufts athletes (varsity football and basketball players) who are passionate about basketball will meet with Scarlett to begin writing a memoir that will use basketball stories to talk about serious social issues.

Deborah Schildkraut, an associate professor of political science in the School of Arts and Sciences, received a Best Paper Award from the American Political Science Association for “Immigrant Resentment: When the Work Ethic Backfires.”

Janet Schmalfeldt, an associate professor of music in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been named to the Advisory Council of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, a nonprofit in Lancaster, Pa., that is dedicated to fostering the growth of musical instruction and the appreciation of fine music in south-central Pennsylvania.

Sharan Schwartzberg, a professor of occupational therapy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and adjunct professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, and Mary Barnes, fieldwork coordinator for occupational therapy, presented a workshop titled “The Disembodied: Betrayal and Loss of Meaningful Social Role” at the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy annual meeting at Simmons College on June 14.

Claire Sharp joined the Cummings School as a faculty member in small animal emergency and critical care in August. Sharp received her B.V.M.S. from Murdoch University in Western Australia in 2003. She spent a year in private practice in Australia before completing a rotating internship 2005 and an internship in emergency and critical care in 2006, both at the University of Missouri. This summer she completed her residency in emergency and critical care, also at Missouri. Sharp’s research interests are in animal models of sepsis, and she has been recognized by the students at Missouri with an award for her teaching.

Robin Smyton, A09, has joined University Relations as an administrative assistant for public relations. She majored in English, with a minor in mass communications and media studies. While a student, she was an intern at Walden Media and covered arts and entertainment for the Tufts Daily. For her senior capstone project, she analyzed the film adaptations of the novels of Jane Austen.

Liz Stanton and Frank Ackerman, research fellows at the Global Development and Environment Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute, co-authored, along with Kristen Sheeran, the director of Economics for Equity and the Environment (the E3 Network), a report on interstate differences in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions. The report explains why some states have much lower emissions than others and helps clarify the potential regional impacts of policies, such as cap-and-trade, which will impose a price on energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. The report is available for download at http://www.ecotrust.org or http://www.e3network.org.

Grace Talusan, a lecturer in English, had her essay, “Blinded,” which first appeared in the spring 2008 issue of Tufts Magazine, selected for inclusion in The Best American Medical Writing 2009, along with pieces by Jerome Groopman, Atul Gawande and Oliver Sacks.

Miho Terunuma, a research associate in the lab of Stephen Moss, professor of neuroscience, received a National American Heart Association Senior Scientist Award. Terunuma will examine the link between glutamate receptor activation and the regulation of AMPK-dependent phosphorylation of GABA-B receptors. Her work has the potential to lead to the development of therapeutics to enhance neuronal survival after ischemic injury.

Giuseppina Tesco has joined the School of Medicine as an assistant professor of neuroscience. Tesco studies the mechanisms by which strokes and head injuries can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Her lab has shown that the brain cell death caused by these traumas can trigger a series of biochemical events that may lead to development of the disease. Tesco comes to Tufts from Harvard. A native of Prato, Italy, she earned her M.D. in 1989 from the University of Florence, where she also completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 1999.

Philip Tsichlis, the Jane F. Desforges, M.D., Chair in Hematology and Oncology and professor of medicine, received the Zucker Family Research Prize from the medical school. He was recognized for his fundamental discoveries of the molecular mechanisms of cancer development. His discovery of the Akt molecule and his work probing the pathways by which this protein alters cell growth and survival led to the recognition of Akt as a key regulator in a range of malignancies. The work has paved the way for development of cancer therapeutics that target Akt. Tsichlis also directs the Molecular Oncology Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center.

Richard M. Vogel, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, received the 2009 Julian Hinds Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute. Vogel was recognized for his advancement of the practice and science of water resource planning and management. He was also appointed to the steering committee of Tufts’ graduate program in Water: Systems, Science and Society, along with Timothy Griffin, an associate professor at the Friedman School, and Robert “Rusty” Russell, a lecturer in urban and environmental policy and planning in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Christine Wanke, associate chair of the department of public health and community medicine, is this year’s recipient of the Milton O., M30, and Natalie V. Zucker Prize for her contributions in the area of clinically oriented AIDS research. Wanke is director of the Nutrition/Infection Unit, and her work focuses on understanding the way in which AIDS and AIDS treatment affects lipid metabolism and the risk of cardiovascular disease. She also studies diarrheal disease and wasting in HIV-infected individuals. Wanke’s work is changing the practices used to manage the AIDS.

Donald Wertlieb, a professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development in the School of Arts and Sciences, received the Nicholas Hobbs Award for Child Advocacy from the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice. He gave a talk titled “On Hobbs’ Shoulders: Communicating for Child Mental Health” at the American Psychological Association convention in Toronto on August 7.

Timothy Wise, director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute, was in Rio de Janeiro in June for the Latin American Studies Association Congress. There he joined his co-authors, Sergio Schlesinger and Nelson Delgado, to launch the Portuguese version of the report, “The Promise and Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization,” published with ActionAid-Brasil. He then traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, where he and co-author Mamerto Perez launched the Spanish version of the report, which was published by the Bolivian non-governmental organization AIPE, along with a book-length collection of the project’s longer case studies.

Michael Worthington, associate professor of medicine, and Kevin Hinchey, assistant professor of medicine, are the 2009 recipients of the Milton O., M30, and Natalie V. Zucker Clinical Teaching Prizes at Tufts School of Medicine. Worthington is chief of infectious diseases at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, and Hinchey is the internal medicine residency program director at Baystate Medical Center. The award recipients are nominated by their peers and then selected by the School of Medicine’s Curriculum Committee. The Zucker Prize recognizes faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to clinical teaching.

Ellen M. Zane, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center, became the 69th chair of the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s board of trustees during the group’s annual meeting in June. After accepting the gavel, Zane called on the commonwealth’s hospitals and health systems to unify on common issues including payment reform, quality and transparency initiatives, and reducing administrative complexity in the health-care system.