December 16, 2009

December 2009 People Notes


2010 Tufts Distinction Awards

Nominations open January 19

Celebrate the achievements of Tufts staff and faculty and nominate a colleague for this honor. Begin thinking about who you would like to nominate by viewing the award categories: http://distinctionawards.tufts.edu.

Astier Almedom, director of the International Resilience Program of the Institute for Global Leadership, published a policy paper, “A Call for a Resilience Index for Health and Social Systems in Africa,” in late October. The paper is part of the Africa 2060 Project, a research program and symposia exploring African issues related to development on continental and regional scales. It is based at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University.

Sawkat Anwer, Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, was invited to present a research seminar titled “Role of p38 MAPK Isoforms in cAMP-induced MRP2 Translocation in Hepatic Cells” by the Carolina Health Care System at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., in September.

Melissa Bailey, N11, a graduate student at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, has received a Dow Chemical Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award. The awards competition was established to promote solutions to the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Bailey and other recipients were recognized at a ceremony held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Elizabeth Byrnes has been promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Christina Economos, an associate professor at the Friedman School and New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition, was honored by the New England Healthcare Institute with one of its 2009 Innovators in Health awards. She is also associate director of the John Hancock Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention at Tufts.

Stanley Eosakul, M13, a first-year medical student, received a Dow Chemical Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award. The awards competition was established to promote solutions to the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Eosakul and other recipients were recognized at a ceremony held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Kevin P. Gallagher, a senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), has founded the new Global Development Program at Boston University, where he is an associate professor of international economics. The program awards master’s degrees in global development policy and global development economics. Gallagher recently had a letter published in the Financial Times on capital inflow controls. He and Roberto Porzecanski, a Fletcher School student, have had their book manuscript, The Dragon in the Room: China and the Future of Latin American Industrialization, accepted for publication by Stanford University Press. Gallagher is also a blogger at the Real-World Economics Review.

Neva Goodwin, co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute, is one of the founding board members of the New Economics Institute.

Jeffrey Griffiths, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine, was appointed by Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) in October. He was concurrently appointed chair of the Drinking Water Committee, a standing subcommittee of the SAB. The SAB was chartered in 1978 to provide external expert advice to the EPA on a wide range of science and technology topics, extending into social, economic and emergency issues. These include climate change, environmental health, air pollution and water quality.

Lisa Neal Gualtieri, an adjunct assistant clinical professor in the Health Communication Program at the School of Medicine, presented a paper, “Improving Patient-Physician Communication about Internet Use: Why ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Doesn’t Work,” at the Medicine 2.0 Conference held at the University of Toronto on September 18.

Boris Hasselblatt, a professor of mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, was on the scientific program committee and attended “Progress in Dynamics,” a conference in Paris in late November marking the 65th birthday of Anatole Katok.

Justin Hollander, A96, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, was the invited keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Association of Planning Directors’ monthly luncheon in October in New Bedford, Mass.

Venkatesh Iyengar, an adjunct professor at the Friedman School, was invited to speak at the International Congress of Nutrition in Bangkok in October. The title of his talk was “Applied Metrology for Strengthening Food and Nutritional Measurements: Ways, Means and Outcomes.” Iyengar also gave 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.

Richard L. Jackson, F64, was the distinguished guest at an event commemorating his 10 years of service as president of Anatolia College and the American College of Thessaloniki on November 5 at the Somerset Club in Boston. Among those attending were former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty. Jackson was president of Anatolia College and the American College of Thessaloniki from 1999 to 2009.

Jerome Kassirer, a Distinguished Professor at Tufts School of Medicine, was honored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with the David E. Rogers Award in recognition of his work to improve the health and health care of Americans. He received the award on November 7 at the AAMC’s annual meeting in Boston. Kassirer gained national prominence for helping medical schools and teaching hospitals revise their conflict-of-interest policies. He also has left his mark as a medical educator, mentor and researcher. A former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Kassirer is the author of On the Take: How Medicine’s Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Gretchen Kaufman, J76, V86, an assistant professor of wildlife medicine and director of the Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine at the Cummings School, attended the annual American Association of Zoological Veterinarians meeting in Tulsa, Okla., in October and delivered two talks: “Conservation Research in an International Context” and “Medical and Management Choices for Greening Veterinary Clinic Operations.”

Brian Lee, vice president for University Advancement; Maria Conroy, senior associate director of donor relations; and Christine Sanni, J89, director of advancement communications and donor relations, spoke at the 26th Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Massachusetts Conference on Philanthropy on November 17 in Boston. Lee discussed how performance metrics strengthen an organization’s ability to fulfill its mission, and Sanni and Conroy presented “Taking the Plunge to Notify Donors of Underwater Funds,” which reviewed how Tufts proactively communicated with donors about drops in endowment values during the financial crisis last year.

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 at Tufts, responded to a recent New York Times article questioning whether school bake sales should be banned. Her published letter to the editor read: “While trying to limit excess snacking during the school day, the emphasis on sugar and fat misses the important issue and unintentionally serves to perpetuate a misconception about food and body weight. The major challenge to avoiding excess weight gain at any age is over consumption of calories, whether the calories come from fat, carbohydrate (sugar or starch) or protein.”

Joerg Mayer, staff veterinarian at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at the Cummings School, lectured on “Radiology of Exotic Pets” for the Sao Paulo chapter of the National Association of Small Animal Veterinarians in Brazil in early October.

Julie Nelson, a senior research fellow with the Global Development and Environment Institute, traveled to Athens, Greece, to participate in a panel discussing the Greek translation of her book Economics for Humans, sponsored by the publisher Kritiki.

Benjamin Nephew has been appointed research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Maria B. Papageorge, D82, DG86, DG89, professor and chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the School of Dental Medicine, was promoted from assistant dean for hospital affairs to associate dean for hospital affairs, effective November 1.

Mark Pokras, V84, associate professor of environmental and population health at the Cummings School, received the 2009 Outstanding Service and Commitment to Advancing and Promoting Avian Medicine and Stewardship Award at the annual conference of the Association of Avian Veterinarians, held in August in San Diego, Calif.

Helen Rasmussen, an instructor at the Friedman School and a registered dietitian, was an invited speaker at the 22nd Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Leadership Conference at the Kennedy School of Government. She spoke about nutrition, alcohol intake and wellness in women.

Susan Roberts, professor of nutrition at the Friedman School and director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article devoted to CALERIE, the calorie restriction study being conducted at Tufts and two other universities. “Here there are really three things we want to know,” she said. “The first is can we really implement human caloric restriction? The second is can we really implement it in a way that doesn’t neglect the biology? People can’t walk around hungry, so is hunger a necessary part of the biology of calorie restriction? The third is are there unacceptable side effects that you wouldn’t pick up in animals that you would pick up in humans? … The goal of the trial is to see if this is ready for prime time.”

Konstantinos Tsioris, E13, a graduate student in biomedical engineering, has received a Dow Chemical Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award. The awards competition was established to promote solutions to the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Tsioris and other recipients were recognized at a ceremony held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Donald Wertlieb, a professor of child development in the School of Arts and Sciences and Community Health Policy Board member, has been elected president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, an interdisciplinary organization devoted to mental health and social justice. During his presidency, he will launch a series of task forces, special sections of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, and other professional development modules.

Xiang-Dong Wang, N92, a professor of nutrition, was one of three speakers from the United States invited to the 10th Brazilian Congress of the Food and Nutrition Society in September in Sao Paulo. He gave presentations on “Carotenoids and Cancer Prevention” and “Alcohol, High-fat Diet and Inflammation.” Wang has also been awarded an administrative supplemental grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 from the National Cancer Institute. The award supports his study on effects of tomato extract vs. purified lycopene supplementation on cancer development. Wang was elected vice chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Carotenoids, which will take place in January in Ventura, Calif.

Parke Wilde, an associate professor at the Friedman School, was a scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Social Sciences at Cornell University from October 5 to 9. He gave a presentation on the “Economics of the Thrifty Food Plan” and another on the “Dynamics of Household Food Insecurity in the United States during a Five-Year Period.” Wilde’s weekly Friedman School class on U.S. food policy was replaced by an unusual cross-university teleconference, broadcast from Mann Library at Cornell to the Boston campus at Tufts. For the teleconference, Parke interviewed Cornell professor and World Food Prize Laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen on the topic of U.S. food policy in a global context.

Noah Wilson-Rich, G10, a student in biology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, recently received a Dow Chemical Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award. The awards competition was established to promote solutions to the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Wilson-Rich and other recipients were recognized at a ceremony held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.