June People Notes

Jeff Bonner, a senior researcher in the Development Division for the past four years, left Tufts in May to become a mortgage originator at First Patriot Mortgage in Revere, Mass. This summer, he expects to complete his master's degree in Tufts' urban and environmental policy and planning program.

Dr. Doug Brugge, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, published a book chapter, "Environmental Health and Safety in Boston's Chinatown," in Asian Voices: Vulnerable Populations, Model Interventions and Emerging Agendas.

Daniel H. Cox, assistant professor of neuroscience, has received the Cranefield Award from the Society of General Physiologists for writing the best paper by a young investigator published in the previous year in the Journal of General Physiology (120:173-189). Other authors of the paper, "Elimination of the BKCa Channel's High-Affinity Ca2+ Sensitivity," were Lin Bao, a post-doc in Cox's lab, and Anne Rapin and Ericka Holmstrand, research associates in the lab.

Daniel C. Dennett, University Professor and Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the University of Connecticut in May.

Patrick Zana Desgranges, a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program at the medical and Sackler schools, is one of 11 students nationwide to be awarded a Schering-Plough Fellowship from the Leadership Alliance. This is a one-time, $4,000 award to provide supplemental funds for underrepresented graduate students to pursue professional development opportunities. The Leadership Alliance, of which Tufts is a member, is a consortium of 31 of the nation's leading research and teaching academic institutions dedicated to improving the participation of students in graduate studies and Ph.D. programs and, ultimately, research professions in the academic, public and private sectors.

Janet Forrester, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, has begun a new study to look at the causes of micronutrient deficiencies in Hispanic drug abusers, with a specific focus on metabolic processes. The study is being funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Sheldon Greenfield, professor of family medicine and community health, has been appointed co-chair of an expert panel for developing cardiovascular quality measures targeted at individual physicians. The program is being sponsored by General Electric and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, associate professor of family medicine and community health, has received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development to work on interactive public health curricula in East African universities and to develop a thermo-stable measles vaccine.

Paul Hattis, adjunct assistant professor of family medicine and community health, had his article, "Overcoming Barriers to Physician Volunteerism: Summary of State Laws Providing Reduced Malpractice Liability Exposure for Clinician Volunteers," published in the University of Illinois Law Forum.

Megan C. Heister has joined the Development Division as a researcher. A 1999 graduate of Carleton College in Minnesota, she has worked in fund-raising at two institutions—as a development assistant at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, Calif., and as an assistant director of annual giving at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. Most recently, Heister worked at Management Sciences for Health in Boston.

Dr. John Kulig, professor of pediatrics and of family medicine and community health, has been appointed to the Adolescent Medicine Sub-board of the American Board of Pediatrics for a six-year term, beginning in January 2004.

M. Barton Laws, assistant clinical professor of family medicine and community health, has signed a contract with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services for a study of racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice. Laws and Nicolas Carballeira, assistant clinical professor of family medicine and community health, had their research letter, "Use of Non-Allopathic Healing Methods by Latina Women at Mid-Life," published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Professor in Applied Developmental Science in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, was in Washington, D.C., on June 6 for the Board of Scientific Counselors meeting of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He will travel to Germany in June to give a public lecture at the University of Jena, where he will also consult with Prof. Rainer K. Silbereisen about developing a new center for applied developmental science there.

Dr. Barry S. Levy, adjunct professor of family medicine and community health, presented a paper on "Challenges to Equity in the Workplace" at the 27th congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health in Brazil last February.

Dr. Antonio Martin, a scientist in the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging's (HNRCA) Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory; Odilia I. Bermudez, scientist in the HNRCA Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Program; and Dr. Carmen Sceppa, acting director of the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Saropenia Laboratory at the HNRCA, discussed "Nutrition, Functional Declines and Health Disparities Among Hispanic Elders" at the Eliminating Health Disparities by 2010 Conference in Boston on March 4.

Neil Miller, lecturer in English, won the 2003 Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction for his book, Sex-Crime Panic (Alyson Books), an investigative account of the McCarthy era roundup and incarceration of 20 gay men in an Iowa state mental hospital following the murders of two small children. The Publisher's Triangle, an organization of gay and lesbian publishers, editors and writers, presented the award at a May 8 ceremony at the New School in New York City.

Miriam Nelson, associate professor of nutrition and director of the Center for Physical Activity at Tufts, will serve on a new, 16-member Global Advisory Council on Healthy Lifestyles, sponsored by McDonald's Corp. The group, composed of scientists from nine nations, is charged with providing independent advice to McDonald's regarding health.

Dr. Ellen Perrin, professor of pediatrics, has created "Somehow We'll Make It Work," a 55-minute video of interviews with 15 children with chronic health conditions and members of their families. "The only way to understand the experience of a child and family when there's a chronic health problem is to hear it from the families who live it," says Perrin, who usually has her residents and medical students sit down with such families. The conditions represented in the video interviews range from asthma and diabetes to cystic fibrosis and leukemia. The video was edited by Stephen Breck, an audiovisual specialist at the medical school. It is available in VHS or CD (MPEG format or PowerPoint). The cost is $50 or two for $75. If you'd like a video, contact Perrin at EPerrin@tufts-nemc.org

Dr. Edward Saltzman, a scientist in the HNRCA Energy Metabolism Laboratory and medical director of the Obesity Consult Center at Tufts-New England Medical Center, discussed the "Medical Treatment of Obesity" at the Norman Schwartz Memorial Lecture Series sponsored by Marlborough Hospital on March 26.

Paul Sweeney, Tufts' sports information director, served as the publicist for the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association this season.

Grace Talusan, lecturer in English, has been awarded partial scholarships from the Center for New Words, where she worked with novelist Patricia Powell; the Voices Writing Workshop at the University of San Francisco, where she will study with novelists Terry McMillan and Gail Tsukiyama; and the Vermont Studio Center, where she will work with novelist Jane Hamilton. She worked on her first novel on a writing retreat at Wellspring House in March. The first chapter of her novel will be published in June in the Del Sol Review.

Dr. Lisa Von Moltke, associate research professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, is the recipient of the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Dr. John B. Wong, associate professor of medicine, was a visiting professor at MetroHealth Case Western Reserve University in March.

Dr. Erika Wyatt, a postgraduate general practice resident at the School of Dental Medicine, was the winner of the Special Care Dentistry Organization (SCO) Table Clinic Award for her presentation on "Air Emphysema: Case Presentation and Case Management" at the SCO annual meeting in Chicago. Dental school faculty members Dr. John Morgan and Dr. Morton Rosenberg and members of the Department of Oral Surgery served as mentors for Wyatt's project.