Notables

David Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, has received the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He was recognized for his work uncovering the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and translating an understanding of its basic biology into potential therapies.

Physician-scientist and rheumatologist John P. Atkinson, MD, the Samuel B. Grant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded the Presidential Gold Medal by the American College of Rheumatology.

David Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, has received a second Einstein Visiting Fellowship from the Berlin Institute of Health to study how immune cells in the brain known as microglia are linked to cancer, vision loss and behavioral problems in the disease neurofibromatosis type 1.

Joseph Jez, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and chair of biology in Arts & Sciences, along with two former researchers in his laboratory, P.A. Rea and R.E. Cahoon, was awarded a U.S. patent for engineered plants that could help detoxify, or remediate, soils contaminated with heavy metals.

Obesity expert Jonathan R. Brestoff, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a 2019 Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to biomedical science through research and education.

Bronwen Konecky, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, works at the cutting edge of an emerging research area that combines paleoclimate data with climate models. She received the Nanne Weber Early Career Award from the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section of the American Geophysical Union.

At the Arts & Sciences faculty welcome reception held Sept. 10 in Holmes Lounge, Dean Barbara A. Schaal presented the annual Arts & Sciences faculty awards for excellence in teaching and service. Awards were presented to Elizabeth Borgwardt, Stan Braude, Adrienne Davis, Steve Fazzari and Lerone Martin.

Washington University’s collaborative Center for Quantum Sensors was awarded a Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) conceptualization grant from the National Science Foundation to help advance applications of quantum information science.

Sharon Cresci, MD, associate professor in the Cardiovascular Division at the School of Medicine, led a committee that developed the American Heart Association’s scientific statement on the potential for precision medicine to improve treatment for patients with heart failure.

Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, and of radiology and neuroscience at the School of Medicine, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health.