Jan Amend, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has received a five-year, $499,418 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “RCN: A Deep-Biosphere Research Coordination Network.” Also receiving the grant was Katrina Edwards, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California. …
Dennis L. Barbour, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has received a one-year, $6,136 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders for research titled “Effects of Spectral Context on Responses in Auditory Cortex.” …
Yehuda Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $456,000 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for research titled “Chemosensory Roles for Epithelial Sodium Channels.” …
Ian Caine and Derek Hoeferlin, both adjunct lecturers in architecture, collaborated with alumnus Michael Heller to create one of six winning proposals in the international Rising Tides design competition, hosted by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The group’s “100 Year Plan” noted that rising tides were one symptom of a larger water crisis and advocated for an ambitious, policy-based “toolkit” that trades the “watershed hopping” method of massive water transport for a more localized approach. The winning teams share a total prize of $25,000. …
Ralph Damiano Jr., M.D., the John M. Shoenberg Professor of Surgery and chief of cardiac surgery, has been named president-elect of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery and president of the Society of Clinical Surgery. …
James W. Fleshman Jr., M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery, has been elected president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery. He previously served on the society’s Executive Council as its secretary and as chairman of numerous committees. …
Michael L. Gross, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has received a one-year, $40,166 grant from the National Center for Research Resources for research titled “A Resource for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry.” The grant provided summer stipends for undergraduate students, including minority students, who learned mass-spectrometry based proteomics under the direction of Henry Rohrs, Ph.D., of the mass spectrometry resource. …
Susan M. Langhorst, Ph.D., director of the Radiation Safety Division in the Department of Environmental Health and Safety, has been chosen as the Radiation Safety Officer Representative on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on the Medical Use of Isotopes. …
Kenneth Murphy, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and immunology and HHMI investigator in pathology and immunology, has received a two-year, $315,000 grant from the Department of Defense for research titled “Defining the Role of BTLA in Breast Cancer Immunosurveillance and Selective Targeting of the BTLA-HVEM-LIGHT Costimulatory System.” …
Robert Pless, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science and engineering, has received a two-year, $198,549 subcontract from Barron Associates Inc. for research titled “SBIR Phase II: Propagation of Uncertainty in Anticipatory Image Exploitation Using Polynomial Chaos.” …
Herman D. Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has received a one-year, $23,950 grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for research titled “Metabolic Cost of Living in Bonobos.” …
Joshua Reece, graduate student in biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a one-year, $7,500 grant from the Fort Worth Zoo Association for research titled “Genetic Sex Diagnosis of Cryptobranchus alleganiensis.” …
Yoram Rudy, Ph.D., the Fred Saigh Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and Leonid Livshitz, Ph.D., research assistant professor of biomedical engineering, have received a three-year, $294,621 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Modeling Spatial Organization of Cardiac Cell Function: Application to Calcium Waves and Arrhythmia.” …
John Shareshian, Ph.D., professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $196,821 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Algebraic, Topological and Enumerative Combinatorics.” …
Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and immunology, has received a five-year, $1,654,845 grant from the National Cancer Institute, entitled “Activation of Cellular Signaling Pathways by DNA Double Strand Breaks.” …
The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences gave the following awards June 12: Morton E. Smith, M.D., professor emeritus of and lecturer in ophthalmology and visual sciences and associate dean emeritus for post-graduate education, was named academic teacher of the year; Robert M. Feibel, M.D., professor of clinical ophthalmology and visual sciences, was named clinical teacher of the year; and Shiming Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, was named research teacher of the year. …
Steven Teitelbaum, M.D., the Wilma and Roswell Messing Professor of Pathology and Immunology, has received a five-year, $1,710,000 grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for research titled “Mechanisms of Polarized Secretion by Bone Cells.” …
Jay W. Tichelaar, Ph.D., research assistant professor of surgery (general surgery), has received a two-year, $152,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for research titled “Role of AP-1 in the Chemopreventive Function of Green Tea in Vivo.” …
Victor Varner, graduate student in biomedical engineering, has received a two-year, $52,000 grant from the American Heart Association for research titled “Mechanics of Embryonic Heart Tube Formation.” The research will be performed under Larry A. Taber, Ph.D., the Dennis and Barbara Kessler Professor. …
Lihong Wang, Ph.D., the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and professor of radiology, has received a four-year, $2,427,071 grant from the National Institutes of Health for research titled “Confocal Photoacoustic Microscopy: Technology Development.”